word or phrase for "random learning through linked documents"
In the process of looking up a word or topic on the web, I often find myself following links to related information. This is a recursive process, and can result in several hours of browsing through a seemingly random set of topics. I've taken similar random walks while reading a paper encyclopedia or even a dictionary.
As an example, I recently followed Isis (goddess) -> Aphrodite -> Venus -> Venus (planet) -> Mars -> terraforming Mars -> lunar colony -> space elevator -> etc.
Does anyone know of a word or phrase for this type of activity / learning process?
Edit: M. Bowles calls this learning process "serendipitous learning" in "Relearning to E-learn: Strategies for Electronic Learning and Knowledge".
Jim Gritton calls this "serendipity browsing" in Of serendipity, free association and aimless browsing: do they lead to serendipitous learning?
What about
thrash learning
(along the lines of "thrashing" on a UX -- so, you don't know how the hell to "change to italics" or "add gaussian filter" so you just thrash, randomly bash on different menu options and keystrokes.)
"free association browsing" (building on the reference in the answer) is also not bad.
One could also use "go with the hyperlink flow" learning.
A critical point is that extremely old people, over 20, used to explicitly append "google" or "the internet" or similar modifiers, to the relevant phrases.
So, "Look it up on the net" "you can easily get the phone number on google" "check online for the story about the pink tiger" "there's a 500 dollar flight on the online flight sites today"
These have become "Look it up" "you can easily get the phone number" "check the story about the pink tiger" "there's a 500 dollar flight today" ... in all cases "what else could it mean?"
Given that, it possible you should simply refer to it as
Serendipitous reading
what else could it mean other than wikipedia and the web generally?
Indeed consider the following sentence:
"I did some serendipitous reading - actually in a library!"
Even if you've never heard the phrase serendipitous reading before, it can only mean one thing: that you wandered the library, reading things here and there, going from topic to topic, with one thing leading to another - just as everyone does on wikipedia.