Chris Volinsky, Director of Statistical Research at AT&T Labs delivered the keynote address to the communications industry track at the 2008 SAS Global Forum. At that time I wrote a blog entry about Chris's hobby, competing for the $1,000,000 Netflix Prize.  The Netflix prize is an example of using mass collaboration.  Chris and his BellKor teammates have been on the top of the Netflix Prize leaderboard for a long time.  Their team won the $50,000 progress prize for 2007 and again for 2008.  They continusously improved their algorithm by joining forces with competing teams. That strategy worked and Chris's team is the first to qualify for the $1,000,000 prize by submitting an algorithm that improves recommendations by the required 10%.  The story even made it into the New York Times.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Netflix. Movie studios do lots of marketing to get consumers into theaters. They clip out the best 3 or 4 scenes and create trailers. But how do you know if the movie is good based on that. Even the worst movie will have a few good scenes.  If I'm going to give up two hours of my time, I'd like to know that there is a good chance I'm going to like the movie. Netflix has recommended many movies to me that I otherwise never would have heard of. Apparently lots of other Netflix customers feel this way.  In another New York Times article from 2008, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix claims that 60% of their movie selections are based on recommendations.

Often analytics is hidden away.  This is a visible example of how analytics can give us something we like. To get another viewpoint, read "Three Lessons in Analytic Strategy from the Netflix Prize by Robert Grossman.

Congratulations to Chris Volinsky and his team.  With so much media coverage, Chris's speaking calendar is probably filling up fast.  I hope to have Chris speaking at another SAS event soon.