Recommendation engines have boomed in the era of social media. These panelists are experts at collaborative filtering systems. Citing Digg, Amazon, and Netflix as examples, they will have a high level discussion about the evolution of recommendation engines and how each approach is different.
Questions Answered:
What are the tradeoffs of publicizing algorithms? Do users care how recommenders work? Do they only care about results?
How do user perceptions about recommendation logic effect the data they give to recommenders?
How do privacy concerns enter into recommender designs?
How do you deal with sparsity: not enough users per item, not enough movie renters per movie, etc?
How do you jump-start recommendations? Early raters with no history, new items low statistics?
How can we better serve "gray sheep", i.e. smaller sub-communities with unpopular views?
What kinds of direct opposition, objection, annoyance, or complaints have you seen from users?
Proposition: logic is overemphasized in collaborative filtering, user interface design and market messaging dominate results. True or false?
How has the implementation of a recommendation engine affected the traffic and activity on sites?
Is there a clear line between earnest user endorsements and cynical promotion? How might one account for such a distinction algorithmically?
Panelists:
Scott Brave (Baynote), Anton Kast, moderator (Digg), David Maher Roberts (The Filter), Jon Sanders (Netflix)