[Air-L] Research on collaborative filtering?

[Jason Mittell]

Hi all - inspired by the excellent Clive Thompson article in today's  
NYT on Netflix & collaborative filtering (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/magazine/23Netflix-t.html 
  ), I want to bring a research project off the backburner about  
collaborative filtering and taste cultures. Does anyone know of any  
research from a more cultural/social perspective on CF? The research  
that's I've found via searches is all about algorithms - since I don't  
want to build a system, but rather study their use & significance,  
those articles are less than useful (and utterly incomprehensible to  
my humanistic mind). I'd appreciate any references about  
recommendation systems and collectivized taste that you know of.

And on a related note, if other people are interested in the topic,  
might we want to put together a panel for IR 10.0? If so, contact me  
off-list.

Thanks,
-Jason

-- 
Jason Mittell, Associate Professor of American Studies and Film &  
Media Culture
Chair of Film & Media Culture Department
Middlebury College
208 Axinn Center at Starr Library
Middlebury, Vermont 05753
(802) 443-3435 / fax: (802) 443-2805
Homepage: http://seguecommunity.middlebury.edu/sites/jmittell
Blog: http://justtv.wordpress.com