Editorial: Serendipity and information discovery

Q2 Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Business Information Review Pub Date : 2022-03-01 DOI:10.1177/02663821221088892

Luke Tredinnick, Claire Laybats

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

It is somewhat paradoxical to imagine not only that serendipity can have an important role in information discovery, but that may also be able to nurture serendipitous events. By its nature serendipity implies the kinds of chance or coincidence that are beyond self-conscious engineering. It also implies a haphazard approach to information organisation and discovery that runs counter to the well-drilled training of information of professionals in the organisation, classification, and categorisation of information. Yet the role of serendipity in information retrieval has been recognised for decades, and when managing the highly structured data sets of the contemporary digital information scape, strategies for maximising serendipitous information discovery have become more important than ever. Resisting the temptation to minutely engineer search strategies can improve the chances of finding not only the information we want, but the information we need. Writing in 1946 about his imagined Memex machine, the US polymath Vannevar Bush described the experience of trying to find information using the then tradition hierarchical structures of analytical indexing:

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社论：机缘巧合与信息发现

想象意外发现不仅在信息发现中发挥重要作用，而且可能会引发意外事件，这有点自相矛盾。从本质上讲，偶然性意味着超越自我意识工程的偶然性或巧合。它还意味着信息组织和发现的随意方法，这与专业人员在信息组织、分类和分类方面对信息的良好培训背道而驰。然而，几十年来，偶然性在信息检索中的作用已经得到了认可，在管理当代数字信息环境中高度结构化的数据集时，最大限度地利用偶然性信息发现的策略变得比以往任何时候都更重要。抵制精心设计搜索策略的诱惑，不仅可以提高找到我们想要的信息的机会，还可以提高找到所需信息的机会。1946年，美国学者Vannevar Bush在写他想象中的Memex机器时，描述了试图使用当时传统的分析索引层次结构来寻找信息的经历：

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Business Information Review Economics, Econometrics and Finance-Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Business Information Review (BIR) is concerned with information and knowledge management within organisations. To be successful organisations need to gain maximum value from exploiting relevant information and knowledge. BIR deals with information strategies and operational good practice across the range of activities required to deliver this information dividend. The journal aims to highlight developments in the economic, social and technological landscapes that will impact the way organisations operate. BIR also provides insights into the factors that contribute to individual professional success.