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

Toward an integrated framework of information and communication behavior: College students' information resources and media selection

This study investigated college students' selection of information resources and engagement in information activities from the perspective of an integrated framework of information and communication behavior, by examining students' interactions with many different types of information resources and media across their school, personal, entertainment, problem solving, and other daily routines. Both web-based diaries and semi-structured interviews were used to capture students' information behavior in natural settings. The subjects logged into a web-based diary and recorded the details of their most important information seeking activity on that day by responding to eleven questions including information seeking topic, resources used, time taken, difficulty, familiarity, and confidence. Two hundred and forty-five information seeking episodes reported by twenty-four subjects from three different colleges and universities were collected over a ten-day period. Findings indicate that the students used multiple information resources in one information seeking episode to verify the content in, often, both information and communication behaviors. The results also reveal that information seeking can be better understood from a social framework because students were aware that human information behavior is influenced by other people's opinions and recommendations and may also affect other people's lives.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61326/1/1450440234_ftp.pd

On Birthing Dancing Stars: The Need for Bounded Chaos in Information Interaction

While computers causing chaos is acommon social trope, nearly the entirety of the history of computing is dedicated to generating order. Typical interactive information retrieval tasks ask computers to support the traversal and exploration of large, complex information spaces. The implicit assumption is that they are to support users in simplifying the complexity (i.e. in creating order from chaos). But for some types of task, particularly those that involve the creative application or synthesis of knowledge or the creation of new knowledge, this assumption may be incorrect. It is increasingly evident that perfect order—and the systems we create with it—support highly-structured information tasks well, but provide poor support for less-structured tasks.We need digital information environments that help create a little more chaos from order to spark creative thinking and knowledge creation. This paper argues for the need for information systems that offerwhat we term ‘bounded chaos’, and offers research directions that may support the creation of such interface

E-Browsing: Serendipity and Questions of Access and Discovery

Browsing is an essential component to discovery. Understanding the foundations of browsing patterns and preferences is crucial in developing effective e-browsing environments. It’s important to understand how researchers in diverse disciplines have described their discoveries in terms of browsing, searching, and serendipitous encounters. Examining the works of scientists, social scientists, and humanists through the lens of discovery will reveal essential components to be aware of in developing e-browsing environments. In turning to a wide range of sources, often outside traditional library literature, we deepen our understanding of what it means to browse in an electronic environment. As librarians, we have an obligation to create physical and virtual spaces that cultivate wonder and curiosity and acknowledge varied paths to discovery. Electronic browsing options must become more robust if libraries are to be vital to scholarly communication. In this presentation we focus on the language and experience of browsing, with particular attention to serendipitous discovery, in order to encourage librarians, particularly those in public service, to more effectively articulate concerns and opportunities to developers

E-Browsing: Serendipity and Questions of Access and Discovery

Browsing is an essential component to discovery. Understanding the foundations of browsing patterns and preferences is crucial in developing effective e-browsing environments. It is important to understand how researchers in diverse disciplines have described their discoveries in terms of browsing, searching, and serendipitous encounters. Examining the works of scientists, social scientists, and humanists through the lens of discovery will reveal essential components to be aware of in developing e-browsing environments. In turning to a wide range of sources, often outside traditional library literature, we deepen our understanding of what it means to browse in an electronic environment. As librarians, we have an obligation to create physical and virtual spaces that cultivate wonder and curiosity and acknowledge varied paths to discovery. Electronic browsing options must become more robust if libraries are to be vital to scholarly communication. In this presentation, we focus on the language and experience of browsing, with particular attention to serendipitous discovery, in order to encourage librarians, particularly those in public service, to more effectively articulate concerns and opportunities to developers

Predicting Consumer Reaction To Online Privacy Concerns: A Nested Logit Model

This paper proposes a theoretical choice model to explain how consumers may react to their concerns regarding online information privacy. A nested logit model is suggested as the appropriate model to predict the choice of online privacy risk management strategies by consumers. Conceptual justification is provided for the proposed model. The validity of the major assumptions behind the model in the context of Internet use is explained. Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed

Online Privacy Concerns Of Indian Consumers

This paper describes an empirical study that investigates the factors that influence consumers’ online privacy concerns and their outcomes in the rapidly growing Indian online market. Indian consumers’ online privacy concerns are found to be positively impacted by their perceived vulnerability to unauthorized gathering and use of personal information, and negatively impacted by their perceived ability to control the manner in which their personal information is collected and used online. The consumers’ perceived vulnerability is negatively affected by their level of Internet literacy and their perceived ability to control the collection and use of information. In turn, the perceived ability to control information collection and use is positively influenced by both the Internet literacy level and the social awareness of the consumer. The privacy concerns of Indian consumers are found to negatively impact both their willingness to provide personal information to Websites, and their willingness to engage in e-commerce transactions.  The implications of the findings for Websites targeting the Indian audience are discussed.   &nbsp

Antecedents And Consequences Of Consumers Online Privacy Concerns

This paper proposes a theoretical framework to investigate the factors that influence the privacy concerns of consumers who use the Internet, and the possible outcomes of such privacy concerns. Factors identified as antecedents to online privacy concerns are perceived vulnerability to personal data collection and misuse, perceived ability to control data collection and subsequent use, the level of Internet literacy, social awareness, and background cultural factors.  The possible consequences of online privacy concerns are the lack of willingness to provide personal information online, rejection of e-commerce, or even unwillingness to use the Internet.  Managerial implications of the framework are discussed

A Most Surprising Fern: Serendipity and Browsing in Botanical Search

This article is a case study of botanical field work in the eastern United States in the early twentieth century. These cases will be analyzed as instances of browsing and serendipity. Browsing and serendipity have a rich literature in information science and this article will draw on this literature in order to better understand serendipity in botany. This article will show how botanical localities support browsing and serendipity for the botanists who search them. This article will also show how botanical institutions and botanists interface with localities in order to further support browsing and serendipity. As a whole this article will present a new way of understanding botanical practice and the role of serendipity within it

Bibliographic Induction: How KO Systems Optimize Browsing by Supporting Library Users' Prior Knowledge

We investigate category-based induction as an aspect of browsing a library collection. Category-based induction is one of the primary uses of categories that are stored in memory. Knowledge organizing systems represent concepts in broadly the same way as models of category-based induction. Accordingly, it is reasonable to suppose that knowledge organizing systems facilitate category-based inductions about the collections that they organize. The processes of familiarization and differentiation are key aspects of browsing (Ellis 1989). Intuitively, these approaches appear to involve category-based induction in a bibliographic context. By examining induction, we hope to shed new light on the role of knowledge organizing systems in shaping browsing behavior. We also seek to investigate the viability of using inductive confidence as a dependent variable in assessing the utility of a KOS. A system that supports induction is potentially of great benefit to people seeking to browse a collection, whether the collection exists virtually or is part of a library’s physical stacks