The beginning of the end of Serendipity

Almost everyone has experienced serendipity at some point in their lives. As a culture we have attached a romantic connotation to it, as evidenced by the romantic comedy of the same name. So it is with no great satisfaction that I suggest that we have now reached the beginning of the end of serendipity.

According to Wikipedia Serendipity means:

a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful without looking for it.

Consider for a moment the following scenario. I am working late in my office with a colleague, planning for an upcoming project. We are discussing possible candidates for one of the critical technical roles. At just that moment the perfect candidate, a colleague that neither of us knows directly, walks by on their way out of the building. Miraculously, my iPad notifies me just-in-time for me to jump out of my chair and chase them down.

How did this happen?

No, it was not one of the happy accidents of The Three Princes of Serendip.

The convergence of four emerging technologies, including; social, local, mobile, big data (analytics), enabled by the cloud, is rapidly changing the information landscape. As I suggested in my earlier posting, Too Much Buzz?, it may soon be the case that all that is known can be easily accessed on demand by anyone, anywhere, at any time – for free.

In fact, it was a context engine that allowed me to capitalize on the fortuitous arrival of the perfect candidate. It knows about me and my needs - my location, the project that I am working on and the roles that I need to fill. It also knows possible ways to meet my needs, including my network of colleagues and their network of connections, the skills and expertise of this extended network, and their real-time location.

All of this information is currently available or will be in the near future. Social platforms, such as Google+ or LinkedIn provide information about skills, networks and projects. Local and mobile tools, such as foursquare or Google Latitude on a smartphone, can provide real-time location information. A software agent could use big data capabilities to leverage this information and establish the context needed to alert me to act at just the right time.

Yesterday's announcement by Google of Search, plus Your World is a big step in this direction.

Before you bemoan the end of serendipity, consider the number of times when events failed to conspire to create a "happy accident" and you were left wanting.

Let me know what you think. I can't wait for a few pleasant surprises.