Is there a place for serendipitous introductions?

Mobile social matching systems have the potential to transform the way we make new social ties. Yet, there are many challenges as to how systems could utilize contextual data to support serendipitous introductions between strangers. I investigate how contextual factors influence people's motivations to meet new people and how opportunistic social matching system design can benefit from concepts like contextual rarity, oddity and sociability. My research will result in an enhanced understanding of people's context-dependent motivations to meet new people and will contribute a theoretical model that predicts contextually-relevant match opportunities and innovative design affordances for opportunistic social matching systems.