+1  A: 

I'm guessing you want to grab the serialized string when the sorting has stopped? Or maybe add a button to submit?

I posted a demo, and tried to cover both of those ways to do it, I hope it helps:

$(function() {
    $("#sortable").sortable({
        revert: true,
        scroll: true,
        appendTo: 'body',
        connectWith: '.column',
        delay:200,
        stop: function(){ $(':button').trigger('click') },
        revertDuration:50000,
        scope:'scope',
        opacity: 0.80,
    });

    $(':button').click(function(){
        var string = $("#sortable").sortable("serialize");
        alert( string);
    })

});
fudgey