Monthly Archives: August 2013
The Science Behind the Netflix Algorithms That Decide What You’ll Watch Next
Almost everything we do is a recommendation. I was at eBay last week, and they told me that 90 percent of what people buy there comes from search. We’re the opposite. Recommendation is huge, and our search feature is what people do when we’re not able to show them what to watch.
We know what you played, searched for, or rated, as well as the time, date, and device. We even track user interactions such as browsing or scrolling behavior. All that data is fed into several algorithms, each optimized for a different purpose. In a broad sense, most of our algorithms are based on the assumption that similar viewing patterns represent similar user tastes. We can use the behavior of similar users to infer your preferences.
More at Wired.com
Spike Lee: Tech is a double-edge sword in filmmaking
Acclaimed film director Spike Lee grabbed the tech spotlight last week by launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for his next feature film. He has until August 21 to meet his goal of raising $1.25 million.
He’s getting there, slowly, with help from some incentive giveaways at the higher donation levels. So far, 1,700 donors have pledged $311,000. At the $10,000 donor level, he’s offering dinner and one of his courtside Knicks seats. He revealed that one of the $10,000 donors (there are 14 so far) is fellow filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.
The campaign is offering “some fly awards” as fund-raising incentives, Lee said. A $10,000 donation, for example, gets the donor a courtside seat with Lee — a well-known NBA fan — for a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden. A $5,000 pledge gets the donor associate producer creds. $1,000 gets the donor a part in the film as an extra. And for $750, he or she receives a pair of shoes Lee has worn.
And to all donors, Lee offers this: “I promise you, my hand to God, on my mother’s grave, every red cent every wooden nickel will go up on the screen.”
More at cnet