Tom Le Bree's presentation on behalf of StreetSpark at Canvas8's event 'By chance or by design. Serendipity and the internet' at The Prince's Foundation on the 21 June 2011.

1. The
Serendipity
Experiment
Presented
by
Tom
LeBree
June
21/2011

2. What
is
Serendipity?
unexpected
chance
meaningful
encounters

3. The
Serendipity
Experiment
Q
-­‐
Can
we
enhance
serendipitous
encounters
with
mobile
technology?

4. What
is
StreetSpark
?
• Creates
Serendipity
by
connecGng
people
through
moments
in
life
that
maIer.
• Matches
users’
shared
social
acGvity
and
sends
an
alert
when
a
match
is
nearby
• The
matches
facilitate
a
spark,
which
can
either
be
Ignited
or
ExGnguished
• ‘Social
Matching’
using
Interest
Graphs
• Facilitates
real-­‐Gme
encounters

5. oad
te d
R
ec
Exp
“Chance
favours
only
the
prepared
mind.’’
Louis
Pasteur

6. 3
Magic
Factors
Place
Time
Ac/on

7. Place
and
Time
CiGes
are
serendipity
engines,
but
most
of
us
just
follow
the
same
rouGne,
most
of
the
Gme,
with
liIle
divergence.
We’re
very
predictable.

8. Birds
of
a
Feather…
Flock
together!

9. AcGon
–
online
to
offline
Follow
the
same
people
Listen
to
the
same
bands/
musicians
on
Last
FM on
TwiIer
StreetSpark
creates
‘Social
matching’
:
based
on
interests
&
social
networking
acGvity
‘Like’
the
same
things
on
Watch
the
same
movies
Facebook
and
Facebook
Groups on
Ne`lix
Read
the
same
books
and
news
Check
into
the
same
on
GetGlue places
on
FourSquare

10. Familiar
Strangers?
Jim
and
Gina:
• Both
ran
the
London
Marathon
• Socialise
at
Soho
House
• Go
to
Reading
on
the
weekends
• Love
watching
cricket
• Just
read
‘Visit
from
the
Goon
Squad’
• Are
parGal
to
Karaoke
• Read
The
Observer
religiously
• Believe
in
Astrology
• Downloaded
Jaime
Oliver
cooking
app
• Listened
to
the
Beatles
‘Yellow
Submarine‘
this
week

11. What
we’ve
learnt
• Strangers
matched
on
social
interests
are
more
likely
to
ignite
(compared
to
profile
info
only)
• Strangers
more
willing
to
meet
when
there
are
overlaps
in
personality
(even
places
they
like)
• People
will
take
risks
(if
they
feel
there
is
potenGal
of
finding
something
‘special’)
• People
want
an
excuse
to
be
spontaneous
• They
see
serendipitous
encounters
as
romanGc

12. THE
EXPERIMENT
CONTINUES…

13. What’s
next
for
StreetSpark?
It’s
business
/me…

14. Reference
material
and
photos
Thanks
to:
• Desperately
Seeking
Serendipity
–
Ethan
Zuckerman
(hIp://
bit.ly/j8UIlO
)
• Google
Images