Spiro

Jun 7, 06:33 PM

They say “luck” is when preparation meets opportunity. Discovery is an opportunity that you’ve prepared in your vision, ideal(s), goals, hopes, desires etc.

Like a puzzle, you have the big picture in mind, you kind of have an idea of what it looks like finished but in order for it to be finished all the pieces must go together…

Tim Hurson calls it unexpected connections, but in the end, the most important tool you have is observation.

Intention plus attention equals success.

A few years ago, when i was renovating my house, I had a vision, lots of pieces to a puzzle, and when it was time to “think” about the team that would come together to renovate such as (drywallers, electricians, plumbers, painters) I knew that I would “attract” the right information at the right time…

I really didn’t ask or search for these people, but when the timing was right, it came…

The way I cam to meet the company who put my drywall up is based on the serendipity you mentioned, instinct and most importantly to observe it…

One day as i was walking to the store, something told me to turn left, and thus i did, at that point i had no clue why, for what and who, but then something happened, i saw a company truck on the side of the street about drywall installation, had their number on the truck and i took it down, too make a long story short, this was the company i went with, i had no other options but them because i felt from that “discovery” my inner instinct had found the perfect choice…

Now can this be created as an “app” is it possible to create instinct app, or an serendipity app?

Perhaps? but it won’t come unless you are open to the idea, (how many of us would risk not having options like i did for the drywall company) and as i mentioned above observation, because observation gives you the attention and the intention guides you to discover it.

jennifer sertl

Jun 7, 06:43 PM

Dear colleagues,
It is my humble opinion that we need first to know who we are and why we are here. Once we have that clarity—things come directly to us. That is why we put a lighthouse on the cover of our book. You are the lighthouse—and the energy and intention you put forth shines forward so that “affinities” are attracted.

I live my life and have since I was 8 years old as a huge adventurous scavenger hunt. I knew I wanted to “seek” wisdom, grace and impact. And things and choices both literally and figuratively began to light up and inform me “follow this path’ or like Alice “eat me” “drink me”. And now on twitter “post me” or “rt me”. I don’t seek relevance. Relevance just lights up.

My fear with all this “app jazz” is that the focus is being brought outside of ourselves. You know and have heard me tweet before: the most powerful #innovation is self-awareness and you are built with an internal app for that.

Love the post, love the questions. I hope my message some how illuminates the path forward .

Namaste,
Jenn

Russ Meyer

Jun 7, 07:26 PM

YES!

I do not subscribe to the belief that eventually an algorithm will be able to predict what I want. Many times even I don’t know what I want until I find it.

I used to love wandering through the library stacks, picking out books that caught my eye. With the infinite variety of the web, someone is going to make a fortune creating a ‘serendipity’ button – what you call discover.

I truly believe that’s the next big idea – and missing from all the algorithmic and even friend-recommended searches.

dotpeople

Jun 8, 03:05 AM

As we seek online approximations to offline serendipity, it’s worth recalling that discovery arises from choice among ambiguous options. If the options were not ambiguous, our selection would be mere decision, not mysterious serendipity.

Cloud-scale analytics of big data will characterize potential ambiguity at much higher precision than the human brain. What may appear ambiguous (and thus serendipitous) to the human can simply be the rational decision of an algorithm.

Is it sufficient to succeed in an algorithmic simulation of “serendipity” that is undectable by a mere human? Or does there exist mystery and serendipity even at the analytic precision of big data? Can an algorithm recognize algorithmic-scale mystery?

When film character Gordon Gekko says that ‘greed is good’, it means that human value systems are infinitely scalable, up or down. We rapidly recalibrate value to account for the evolution of powered flight, augmented cognition and theme parks of prescribed experience.

Human valuation of serendipity will duly recalibrate for computer-mediated presentation of plausibly ambiguous sources of mystery. In the long run, even magical simulations are understood as rational and poor imitations of the infinitely mysterious.

But even in a reproducibly artificial discovery process, there will be “discovering” humans who are worthy of being discovered. Yay for comment-based human discovery and looking forward to futureful’s app. Remember to make the humans discoverable :)

Nicolas Grasset

Jun 8, 01:53 PM

The web today is full of “searching” but also “exploring”.

Most apps are taking the searching experience further with recommendation based on the user identity, preferences or overall context to suggest exploration.

Discovery however, as pointed out in the article and comments, goes beyond recommendation and exploration. Can an app place us in the right state of mind to identify the context and suggests unlikely options to discover our future, not just explore option?

I am looking forward to it! ;)

CoCreatr

Jun 8, 03:31 PM

Well, great. Now I understand that in the “filter bubble” that Eli Pariser wrote and TED-talked about we have an antithesis to discovery. It is almost as if during a stroll through the city only the places you “liked” or visited before move into view. Feels absurd. As if the online marketers are in a vain hope to catch our attention based on something we gave attention to in the recent past – yet likely the search is over and we have moved on.

Happened to me when I read up on model airplane and microcopter motors. Compared to 20 years ago when I last flew RC models, now they are all electric and powerful. I spent some time on the pages of Hobby King learning about performance, merits and demerits of the various motors and batteries. Now these ads keep following me, but I have moved on. This feels so robotic, whereas Amazon recommending books based on my purchase history felt creepy. Anyway, show me new ads, the same old stuff won’t cut it.
No discovery, no serendipity.

ehooge

Jun 8, 05:32 PM

If you consider (as suggested by spiro) that
discovery = preparation + opportunity then we need an app that focus your mind (preparation) and favors serendipitous meetings or readings (opportunity)…

Well that definition happens to fit in quite well with the way I use Twitter!
I follow and read people from different horizons, and when I’m looking for new ideas or when I have a spare moment, I just launch my twitter app, open up my mind and read through the 50 latest tweets from the stream…
I also have a Twitter routine of reading selected people on my lists and retweeting or sharing some good stuff I have found somewhere else. That process also helps me to focus on more precise questions and there again I can stumble upon an interesting concept.

If you don’t want to use a Twitter-type app, then you can probably achieve a similar result by going out for a walk in an area of your city which you don’t know and watch what people are doing… Then we could say your app = your feet + your notebook + your camera (or if you absolutely need an actual app to do that then I would suggest Evernote or Serendipitor…)

And this reminds me of “50 ways to expose yourself to randomness” http://ow.ly/5cZVP

Emile

Les Nessman

Jun 8, 11:59 PM

“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master— that’s all.’”

- Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

Daniel Durrant

Jun 9, 01:17 AM

Great post. Some of my favorite discoveries in life have come about because of complex interactions of which I held very little control.

The implications for a discovery engine and platform for learning and connecting with others is immense. It’s also a great feeling when you can contribute to helping friends and strangers make discoveries for themselves. Basically, Futureful sounds pretty cool, especially if engagement happens and if users can get an idea of how-to retain the value and synthesize all of their discoveries in their lives. The best discoveries are not just abstract ideas, but stuff we can actually do and enjoy in our real lives. I loved Spiro’s house renovation example. :)

In nemetics, I’d say that a Discovery is when we fully Notice (n), Engage (e), Mull (m), and Exchange (e) a NEME, which is a lot greater than a “meme” because it relates to us physically, as if in our “genes”. The experiences affects us through “lumenes” of emotion. You can read the basics at http://bit.ly/l1aGyu

Of course, there are a lot of times when we’re searching for something and we can’t seem to find it. Searching is what I do when I’ve misplaced my keys, but it’s also something I do when I have a general idea of where something is located. Most of the time I use Google, my RSS feeds, and Twitter. I can typically find what what I’m looking for.

I love it when I’m searching for something on a subject of which I know little. I may have a rough map and be keen to unlock a discovery, but don’t know exactly what I’m doing. Heck, even sometimes I question the map and feel lost.

Searches and discoveries can go hand-in-hand, yet when we’re lost it’s great to have others around who are searching and/or have discovered what we may already have been looking for. I know that when I’m feeling lost social media has proven to be a great place to turn. Here I’ve made discoveries and new friends and some I’ve come to meet face-to-face. Eventually you’re platform might feel like a home for those of us who are looking to discover another home — a true nemisphere.

A parting quote:

“It is good to feel lost… because it proves you have a navigational sense of where “Home” is. You know that a place that feels like being found exists. And maybe your current location isn’t that place but, Hallelujah, that unsettled, uneasy feeling of lost-ness just brought you closer to it.” ~Erika Harris, lifeblazing.com

Jarno M. (Futureful)

Jun 9, 01:05 PM

Huge thanks for insightful comments!

@Spiro Great example, this is the puzzle to be solved. :) If we could spot new connections, we could make new discoveries. And that might require that we expand our own “mind map” by entering the realm of intuitive yet personally relevant connections.

@jennifer We use different methods to explore ourselves and the world. Our self is a continuous process of discovery in itself. In becoming who we are, we are discovering and reflecting those discoveries in a continuous loop.

A good point about the “app jazz”! The tech or medium in itself is not important. I see that we can use different methods in exploring ourselves whether it’s a history book, an art piece, a pop song or an iPad app… they all can enable us to become more self-aware in an equal manner depending on their “contents”. Digital tech supports interactive methods that can be used to bring multiple layers of human life together in an illuminating manner. That might create new opportunities to enlighten ourselves – to discover new things about ourselves and the world around us.

@Russ Indeed. Our futures should (and will) not be directed by the algorithms. The human being should be put in the center of things when talking about the new emerging digital technologies. We should empower and support the serendipity and curiosity that can be found in each one of us.

@dotpeople “As we seek online approximations to offline serendipity, it’s worth recalling that discovery arises from choice among ambiguous options.” Exactly. We have to embrace ambiguity to make discoveries with or without “augmentation”.

Simulation of serendipity happens only if the serendipitous “signal” (no matter how it’s created) doesn’t have any effect on anything. The real life experience matters. Via interaction between on-the-screen and off-the-screen worlds, digitally augmented serendipitous discovery is not reduced to a simulation but something that is concretely happening to an individual. The value of that particular signal is evaluated through her experience.

@Nicolas Indeed. Yes, it’s not just who we are at the moment but who we want to be in the future. No one wants to live in a continuous re-run of her earlier life.

Like you say, for discovery the atmosphere matters. I think that a “predictive discovery system”, used via an app that travels with you everywhere, can really help you to expand the territory you are exploring (metaphorically speaking). :)

@Cocreator To the point!!

@ehooge Twitter works for me in quite the same way. It’s a continuously ongoing festival of new ideas and insights. The right state of mind comes into play again. How do you make sense of the continuous information flow around you? What are your methods to deal with the flow? One has to have a focus, like you describe in your comment. Otherwise discoveries are lost in the noise. And this “serendipitous focus” is the thing I want to bring into life in Futureful system.

@Les Some mysteriousness is always good. And “Alice In Wonderland” is a classic for making that happen.

@Daniel Many thanks again! Already waited for your insights – and many thanks for the NEME link. :) “The best discoveries are not just abstract ideas, but stuff we can actually do and enjoy in our real lives.” This is the focus. How to support our curiosity? How to create links between our internal “mind maps” with other relevant “mind maps” out there? And how to create concrete value for a person by making these new connections. How to enable concrete discoveries that empower the individual in her everyday life?

@Allofyou Great insights, ideas and POVs. You made discoveries happen here and now. Thank you, looking forward to hearing more.

-Jarno M. http://twitter.com/ilparone

wildcat

Jun 9, 02:35 PM

Hi Jarno,

Very good post and interesting comments, and thank you for calling my attention to it, so here are a few sense thoughts that came whilst reading this.

First about serendipity, a fascinating term that to my eyes is both overused and under-appreciated in its possible implications and probable consequences, for serendipity is not an act of volition, nor a performance of discovery. (Discovery in this sense I much prefer to describe as a happenstance)

Rather serendipity is more akin to a poetic stance, a state of mind if you like, a state unlike any other for it implies certain openness to a flow that is implicitly larger, more indeterminate and more ambiguous than that from which one perceives.
Serendipity, can be said to be an accretion of seemingly random signals sampled from and within a sea of noise, reaching a threshold of criticality that can be recognized by a given agent (a Knowmad?) under given and necessary conditions (preparations, previous correlated pattern-knowledge, language etc.)
The main issue I would like to point concerns the term ‘sampling’, which is one way I use to describe my hyperconnected info-stream activity, in this regard sampling may or may not involve reading the full link through which the tweet originated. It may or may not be fully coherent or sequential, it does however involve a number of key terms that, as it were, ‘pop into attention’ and initiate a cascade of correlated cross-pollinating flow of interests, resulting at times in new discoveries, indeed happenstances of insight.

It is important to remember that at present the manner and fashion of collating relevancies into coherent infocologies which make sense to the relevant mind is a process in progress, which for many still results in incapacitating their model of reality due to info-overloading. Some of the problems are based on the usage of outdated terminologies, such as for example the latest from Robin Dunbar concerning the very limit of the human brain in its social capacity (150 friends?). Of course I do not subscribe to such a view, mainly because I think that the terms ‘social’ and ‘friend’ in the hyperconnected infoverse have mutated from their original tribal (Paleolithic) sense to new designations and semantics allowing for a much wider interpretation of intersubjective correlated activities from which new discoveries can and do happen.

I am all for an app that re-centralizes the ‘human spark’ as you put it, such an app will need take into account the most human of all humane tendencies, namely errors and mistakes in perception, in a funny fashion these may yield the very clues to the riddle, instead of finding that which you looked for (good for conventional language and every day necessities) I think about it as a mistake in interpretation to which the app will create the correct ambient intelligence.
Under these circumstances the Ambientation process will give the context (creating a temporary infocology- hyperlinks and all) to the ‘mistake in interpretation’ resulting in a possible discovery.

As I know you are aware of my own work in the Polytopia Project I think there is a very high correlativity of that which I have called fluid affinities (as in the paper fluid affinities replace nucleic identity – link) and the course of serendipitous discovery, as insight happenstances to which you point.
Such an app if it were to manifest from the virtual into our actuality will need be extremely intelligent and context sensitive, allowing for a wide margin of ambiguity to play in, opening new vistas of exploration not previously considered pertinent.

Thanks again

#kudos to dotpeople – very much in accord with your take (if only we could qualify – but not quantify ‘worthy of discovery’)

Spiro

Jun 9, 07:30 PM

I agree with ehooge about twitter in itself being a “discovery app” the most important thing to understand (at least for me) is what is called in Innovation as “functional jobs”

Using the example in my previous comment about my “intuition” leading me to turn left and “discovering” the drywall company, my question is,

Is it possible to create an app so that one can “function” in terms of knowing when intuition is telling them “something”?

I believe that discovery, serendipity, intuition, are skill sets that need to be experienced, observed when experienced, and learn from the experience…

Going back to the twitter example, we all experienced twitter, we all have observed from that experience how to “function” and then we create and gain momentum from learning from that experience…

If luck is preparing for opportunity, then intention requires attention.

The problem with “search’ how it’s evolved and it’s implications in targeting, has made intention overused because they want your attention.

It’s as almost they are creating serendipity instead of “allowing it to happen”

The emergent understanding for me here is learning that at all times we are discovery, but when something feels inspired, insightful, informative and imaginative we get inclinations that our preparation of intention and keeping attention gives us the discovery.

Sophie

Jun 9, 08:57 PM

I love this concept of ‘discovery’ rather than search. When I search something, previous knowledge really limits where and how I look for information. It works well if I’m looking for something very specific, but it doesn’t help me go beyond my comfort zone and find something fascinating.

I’m an avid user of Twitter, and what I love about Twitter is it allows me a great deal of serendipity and accidental discoveries, often times through retweets from others. Although the Twitter platform doesn’t actively/mainly promote discovery, but that’s where I found the beauty of discovered information on the net. Also, I tend to ‘discover’ interesting bits of information or articles on facebook because my friends ‘liked’ it, making it show up on my news feed.

So I think working social stream into the mix for your app is great, because the app brings scattered ‘discovery’ experiences into one place. One thing though, I don’t know how you do the datamining, but I think it’ll be important to make sure not to limit the results to the information linked to the user’s social stream. In my mind, if it’s a ‘discovery’, it should go beyond what’s already connected to me. ;)

I don’t know if you’ve tried the app Discovr Music on the iPad. It lets you ‘discover’ music based on collaboration history of different musicians. Information is pulled from Youtube videos, I believe. I love this app for finding new music/musicians to listen to. Having already seen the demo video, it seems like Futureful app does somewhat similar thing for news and other types of information sources. If you haven’t, check it out. Visualization of this app is pretty cool.

Looking forward to seeing ‘Futureful’ on the app store.

Gabriel Shalom

Jun 10, 02:29 PM

There’s a lot to think about here and its very exciting to see the clearheadedness of this audience’s perspective on serendipity.

What strikes me the strongest about the nature of the interface for this potential serendipity engine of Futureful is the inherent sensory limitations of a mobile internet device.

I believe that for us to experience a simulation of the full range of the truly serendipitous, a larger spectrum of sensory input will be required. Personally I find music and sound a particularly marvelous way to discover new things. I especially relish the experience of hearing new music in a specific place; if and when I get my own copy of that music, I find the aura of the physical space in which I first heard the music stays attached long after the initial discovery.

I am particularly interested in whether Futureful will have a voice-operated system with a sonic user interface.

This ties deeply to beliefs I hold about the future of augmented reality (or aura recognition, as I have called it) being something which has great potential if embodied through audio.

See also: http://vimeo.com/11227531

Gregory Rader | OnTheSpiral.com

Jun 11, 01:52 AM

A lot of people have left insightful comments above. The only point I would add is that search is not only a tool that occassionally and accidentally leads to discovery but also empowers discoveries that occur through other mediums.

A discovery is rarely self contained. In fact, the initial “discovery” is likely only a hint of intrigue…a phrase or visual cue that catches your attention. The true discovery occurs in researching that initial hint and determining conclusively that it does actually have value for you.

Discovery without search (or some similar intentional tool) is simply novelty. The two go hand in hand, in both directions.

Steve Ardire

Jun 13, 05:53 PM

Interesting blurb from a Director of Cognitive Neuroscience on predictive discovery

“Because the brain is such a proactive, relentless generator of predictions, it is always on the lookout for something new where novelty is a primary trigger of learning. What we learn, what stays in memory, are novel bits of information about our universe, which enrich the pool of scenarios on which we can later produce predictions. And thus, our ability to produce accurate predictions and minimize uncertainty increases with exposure to the new”.

Source: Memories: What we remember, what we forget http://bit.ly/lwEAEp

Jarno M. (Futureful)

Jun 14, 09:26 AM

@Wildcat, thank you for joining the conversation. I agree on your take on serendipity as a quality or a state of mind rather than an “act” in itself. For me serendipity is a quality/state that emerges from a process of discovery itself. The processes (and methods for supporting/enhancing serendipitous discovery) will vary as we’ve seen from the comments and examples above. It’s another issue, how much intelligence the discovery system/platform itself requires or contains, think e.g. Twitter. Sometimes you start with something very simple and end up having something very complex and sophisticated emerging around it.

In a personal discovery system I have in mind, the human factors (personal patterns/focus/attention and social patterns/focus/attention) produce the balance between relevance and surprise. Algorithms play part in creating the adaptive information flow and enabling feedback loops that emphasize human interaction.

@Spiro To be exposed to new and even unexpected patterns is a key for discovery. Search paradigm doesn’t support that. New patterns feed our conscious and unconscious “thought processes” which are intertwined both in intuition and discovery. Intuition is inside of us. When supporting discovery, the aim is not to “simulate” intuition but to feed it with varying stimuli, to provide directions or paths that might trigger it. To reflect intuition that is manifested in our interactions. Likewise, discovery cannot be ready-made or served as complete. It comes into being through the interaction between an individual and the phenomenon/object in question.

@Sophie The aim is to go beyond the “social echo chamber”. At the same time, it’s important to let the individual’s own interactions to affect the signals and the contents she will get. The individual herself creates and modifies her own adaptive information space that is continuously transformed by the information flows around her (social signals, geo signals, tags, links etc.). Will keep you updated on the launch date. :) (Thanks for the Discovr Music tip, I will check it out.)

@Gabriel Agree. Discovery can be a holistic experience – why not to express and emphasize it in the UX level too. Overall, this is a direction/area that has to be taken into account in the further design and development. (Thanks for the AR link!)

@Gregory “The true discovery occurs in researching that initial hint and determining conclusively that it does actually have value for you.” I think personal discovery can be intrinsically situational i.e. fundamentally tied to a certain time and place (or other specific contexts). Thus the value of the given discovery can also be determined on the spot, not just retrospectively.

@Steve Thanks for the quote and the link. Indeed our brain is a predictive discovery engine itself. :) (pardon the mechanistic metaphor)

Michal

Jun 14, 09:41 PM

Great post and very interesting comments.

To me Discovery is what Real Time Search should be, real time geo-aware localized personalized ambient data. I talk about that in my presentation from are2011 http://www.slideshare.net/michalavny/real-time-search-in-the-era-of-augmented-reality

Twitter is perceived as a discovery app, but was the web prior to search engines a discovery app? Not really, it was just hard to find useful information.
Discovery is not necessarily about what we don’t know how to access, it is not about the process, but about the results, the findings.
We don’t know how to follow events in Twitter, or whom to follow, the lack of discovery tools (or real time search that is not keyword based), is what’s missing, making us browse through thousands of tweets, finding serendipity information, most of the time out of context or not relevant to us.
Twitter is yet to be discovered…