Serendipity as a line to knowledge

I like this line of thinking from Doug Cornelius, Knowledge Management and Serendipity.

One thing I noticed in our search for an enterprise search tool is the serendipity factor. People were finding interesting and informative things that they did not expect to find.

I am particularly interested because a lot of the "formal knowledge management" efforts (KM as technology) completely miss this aspect of human nature when it comes to knowledge and learning.

Sure, people will find things through diligent search.  But they also stumble across useful things in any number of ways.  Shouldn't our technologies and services encourage BOTH.  Are you responsible for your CMS or DMS or Portal?  Does anyone browse around those services?

p.s.  I'm updating the foundations of this blog, so if there are "issues," please let me know.  I already know that the website stylesheet is a little strange.  And I think commenting is not yet completely working.