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Discovery Is Never By Chance: Designing for (Un)Serendipity

Discovery Is Never By Chance: Designing for (Un)Serendipity
Discovery Is Never By Chance: Designing for (Un)Serendipity
Serendipity has a long tradition in the history of science as having played a key role in many significant discoveries. Computer scientists, valuing the role of serendipity in discovery, have attempted to design systems that encourage serendipity. However, that research has focused primarily on only one aspect of serendipity: that of chance encounters. In reality, for serendipity to be valuable chance encounters must be synthesized into insight. In this paper we show, through a formal consideration of serendipity and analysis of how various systems have seized on attributes of interpreting serendipity, that there is a richer space for design to support serendipitous creativity, innovation and discovery than has been tapped to date. We discuss how ideas might be encoded to be shared or discovered by ‘association-hunting’ agents. We propose considering not only the inventor’s role in perceiving serendipity, but also how that inventor’s perception may be enhanced to increase the opportunity for serendipity. We explore the role of environment and how we can better enable serendipitous discoveries to find a home more readily and immediately.
Serendipity, survey, creativity, insight, design suggestions
André, Paul
be9fe144-3cf4-4aaf-9ddd-c37776b00831
schraefel, m.c.
ac304659-1692-47f6-b892-15113b8c929f
Teevan, Jaime
8184b55b-b516-44fc-8d4e-73d06eeb8ea7
Dumais, Susan T.
bb31eb85-41e4-4257-b1be-15d96fb2e5d5
André, Paul
be9fe144-3cf4-4aaf-9ddd-c37776b00831
schraefel, m.c.
ac304659-1692-47f6-b892-15113b8c929f
Teevan, Jaime
8184b55b-b516-44fc-8d4e-73d06eeb8ea7
Dumais, Susan T.
bb31eb85-41e4-4257-b1be-15d96fb2e5d5

André, Paul, schraefel, m.c., Teevan, Jaime and Dumais, Susan T. (2009) Discovery Is Never By Chance: Designing for (Un)Serendipity. ACM Creativity & Cognition 2009.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Serendipity has a long tradition in the history of science as having played a key role in many significant discoveries. Computer scientists, valuing the role of serendipity in discovery, have attempted to design systems that encourage serendipity. However, that research has focused primarily on only one aspect of serendipity: that of chance encounters. In reality, for serendipity to be valuable chance encounters must be synthesized into insight. In this paper we show, through a formal consideration of serendipity and analysis of how various systems have seized on attributes of interpreting serendipity, that there is a richer space for design to support serendipitous creativity, innovation and discovery than has been tapped to date. We discuss how ideas might be encoded to be shared or discovered by ‘association-hunting’ agents. We propose considering not only the inventor’s role in perceiving serendipity, but also how that inventor’s perception may be enhanced to increase the opportunity for serendipity. We explore the role of environment and how we can better enable serendipitous discoveries to find a home more readily and immediately.

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More information

Published date: 2009
Venue - Dates: ACM Creativity & Cognition 2009, 2009-01-01
Keywords: Serendipity, survey, creativity, insight, design suggestions
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 267710
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/267710
PURE UUID: 33f426b6-f300-4a05-98b7-4361261dd19f
ORCID for m.c. schraefel: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9061-7957

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 28 Jul 2009 13:07
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:16

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Contributors

Author: Paul André
Author: m.c. schraefel ORCID iD
Author: Jaime Teevan
Author: Susan T. Dumais

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