Serendipity 25 years after

Unexpected Relevance: An Empirical Study of Serendipity in Retweets
Tao Sun, Ming Zhang, Qiaozhu Mei

Last modified: 2013-06-28

Abstract

Serendipity is a beneficial discovery that happens in an unexpected way. It has been found spectacularly valuable in various contexts, including scientific discoveries, acquisition of business, and recommender systems. Although never formally proved with large-scale behavioral analysis, it is believed by scientists and practitioners that serendipity is an important factor of positive user experience and increased user engagement. In this paper, we take the initiative to study the ubiquitous occurrence of serendipitious information diffusion and its effect in the context of microblogging communities. We refer to serendipity as unexpected relevance, then propose a principled statistical method to test the unexpectedness and the relevance of information received by a microblogging user, which identifies a serendipitous diffusion of information to the user. Our findings based on large-scale behavioral analysis reveal that there is a surprisingly strong presence of serendipitous information diffusion in retweeting, which accounts for more than 25% of retweets in both Twitter and Weibo. Upon the identification of serendipity, we are able to conduct observational analysis that reveals the benefit of serendipity to microblogging users. Results show that both the discovery and provision of serendipity increase the level of user activities and social interactions, while the provision of serendipitous information also increases the influence of Twitter users.

In case you wish to read more: Here's the pdf.

Two kinds of idealists

The day after the Tiananmen massacre.

There does exist a video
of the so-called tankman.

Some years ago I embedded it.

But then certain people
calling themselves Educational Foundation
claimed copyright.

Now I wonder if those idealists *
will ask me
to pay them 300 billion dollar
for showing the photo
they did not take.

* ha ha ha

Bowing in front of the Brave

Tonight I am bowing to those people who 25 years ago in China – and not only on the Tiananmen Square in Beijing – peacefully demonstrated against suppression and corruption and for freedom and democracy and became victim of a ruthless bunch of criminal bastards in power.
And I am bowing to those who would not give up.


Very probably I'd be not such brave.

The peace of the night.

Chimneys

. . .

Seven

Don't know how many people
got murdered since,
got tortured since,
got raped since;

don't know how often when opening their mouths
certain politicians and business(wo)men did not deliberately tell lies.

I do know, though, that in the past seven years I met a few interesting and nice people.

Thankfully raising my glass: Sláinte. 

Waiting for June

. . .

Friday is Skyday

. . .

On the road

13

Birth

Tee 11

After a rainy Night

Fuzzy-Head

A cloudy torso,
ancient beauty, fuzzy-head.
Ephemeral face.

Hundertster Geburtstag

Hardly could believe when checking my archive. Almost seven years have past since I posted this.

Today George Tabori would become 100 years old. And certainly this birthday would be as beautifully celebrated as his 90th, with an homage of which I share the 12th and last part with you.

Voilà.