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 The
Meaning(s) of Serendip : "a former name for Sri Lanka + -ity.
A word coined by Horace Walpole, who says (Let. to Mann, 28 Jan. 1754)
that he had formed it upon the title of the fairy-tale `The Three Princes
of Serendip', the heroes of which `were always making discoveries, by
accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of'."
Serendip's RSS Feed: Read Serendip's new articles and exhibits like a newspaper subscription.
What's New on Serendip : A reverse chronological
listing of major new additions to a changing and developing Serendip.
Serendip's 10th Anniversary: An Invitation to an Intellectual Playground: An essay and tour around Serendip.
Serendip's Site Map, A mapping of
information structure and the physical topography of Serendip.
Courses Near and Far Using Serendip Materials: An incomplete list of college and universities using Serendip
Serendip's Mailbag: A small sampling of email from readers that tells us about how Serendip is useful in various ways
WebWeaving: friends of Serendip's are friends
of yours? : Anyone who finds Serendip interesting is probably interesting
to Serendip...
Serendipia, a land of and for Serendipians
: Habitués of Serendip, Serendipians, leave their marks in Serendip's
Forum areas, but often have important things to say....
Serendip's Bookshelves : A listing of books
and journal articles which are important to Serendip's evolution.
 Serendip
in the News : A selection of Serendip's appearances on the Web.
Keeping track of Serendip : Serendip's visitors
over the years.
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 Born
in the summer of 1994, Serendip was conceived as an interacting and developing
system, not unlike a living organism.
In the fall of 1996, Serendip had organized itself into ten main
subject areas (Brain and Behavior, Complex
Systems, Genes and Behavior, Science
and Culture, Science Education, among others).
Each of these contains interactive exhibits, articles, links to other
resources, and a forum area for comments and discussion.
 Serendip
1999 had especially grown in Playground, with
interactive experiences of a variety of kinds, the Guest
Exhibitions section, with additional multimedia material and interactive
exhibits, and a Local Resources section. Each of
these has its own forum area, and there is a separate
forum area for discussion of Serendip itself.
By the end of 2000, Serendip had grown and radiated
in multiple directions. Serendip metamorphosed for 2001, acquiring a new
navigational system, a more consistent page appearance, and new home pages
for each of its major sections. The more inclusive Biology
section subsumed Genes and Behavior. A database was added to collect experimental
data from contributors (Time to Think) in
2002.
During 2003, Serendip's Home Page changed to suggest
different ways to navigate through Serendip's more than 10,000 pages in
a non-hierarchical fashion. In teacher workshops, Philadelphia-area teachers
were encouraged to create their own Serendip in the "experimental
sandbox," Serendip's TWiki Territory.
Serendip surpasses a million visitors in 2004.
By 2006, Serendip became yet more expansive in its outreach, publishing articles by and conversations with scholars in anthropology, art history, writing, geology and philosophy, among others. Interacting with and publishing Serendip readers' stories grows, and storytelling across the humanities and sciences, as well as storytelling as a biological process is a major focus.
By the end of 2008, Serendip had published new exhibits and content almost exclusively using content-managed software for over a year, and was able to welcome a much higher degree of reader interactivity than ever before. Serendip surpassed 3 million unique visitors in 2007. |
