Roger On Drupal

Directed Serendipity - Professor Roger James, University of Westminster

Anyone attending a presentation on Web 2.0 will be impressed by the enthusiasm of the presenting zealot and the terrific, if often quixotic, examples.

At a research level there are two basic questions to ask: can the energy and enterprise of Web 2.0 be harnessed for mainstream operations and are the technologies of Web 2.0 a passing fad or a seismic shift in our way of working? We will present our answers to these questions based on a research project which supported and incentivised student contributions in a Web 2.0 world hosted in Google Apps & Facebook.

Start first with an example: Wikipedia. We know that its launch and commercial model happened by accident, we know that there is a big asymmetry in contributions and we recognise its value and success. Scale Wikipedia to your organisation and your challenge and questions arise: can you design a success, what catchment and incentive do you need to include the contribution zealots and how do you judge success.

In this presentation we will present our latest research findings exploring ‘directed serendipity’ from our students, how, where and why they can help grow the information space of the University. Building out from an established base of technology, of policy and of existing professionals is a very different proposition to the ‘green fields’ approach of Wikipedia. Boundaries need to be shifted and policy needs to be unpacked.

The core resource is the energy, enthusiasm and enterprise of the students and their social networks. Where conventional producers struggle to communicate with their intended audience, the student producer benefits from viral, guerrilla marketing. While professionals dissect and analyse their technologies and channels, the student audience judge by experience. When we are fearful of failure students are bold experimenters. There are profound shifts underpinning broad assumptions: whilst everyone focuses on information consumption all students are far more active producers of content that the generations that proceeded them – but the content is not just the centuries old essay but also digital chat.

Bringing these elements together we will discuss the findings for our, and for your, organisation. A very different information fluency and technological familiarity is becoming a given, it challenges how we design our facilities and how we encourage and enhance contribution. We are left with some key questions of our own role in this current future.