RecommenderSystems AnIntroduction

Dietmar Jannach,MarkusZanker,AlexanderFelfernig,GerhardFriedrich
CambridgeUniversityPress

WhichdigitalcamerashouldIbuy? Whatisthebestholidayformeand
myfamily? Whichisthebestinvestmentforsupportingtheeducationofmy
children? WhichmovieshouldIrent? WhichwebsiteswillIfindinteresting?
WhichbookshouldIbuyformynextvacation? Whichdegreeanduniversity
arethebestformyfuture?

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Agenda

Introduction
Problemdomain
Purposeandsuccesscriteria
Paradigmsofrecommendersystems

CollaborativeFiltering
ContentbasedFiltering
KnowledgeBasedRecommendations
HybridizationStrategies

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Problemdomain
Recommendationsystems(RS)helptomatchuserswithitems
Easeinformationoverload
Salesassistance(guidance,advisory,persuasion,)
RSaresoftwareagentsthatelicittheinterestsandpreferencesofindividual
consumers[]andmakerecommendationsaccordingly.
Theyhavethepotentialtosupportandimprovethequalityofthe
decisionsconsumersmakewhilesearchingforandselectingproductsonline.
(Xiao&Benbasat 20071)

Differentsystemdesigns/paradigms
Basedonavailabilityofexploitabledata
Implicitandexplicituserfeedback
Domaincharacteristics
(1)XiaoandBenbasat,Ecommerceproductrecommendationagents:Use,characteristics,andimpact,MISQuarterly31(2007),no.1,137209
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Purposeandsuccesscriteria(1)

Differentperspectives/aspects

Retrievalperspective

Dependsondomainandpurpose
Noholisticevaluationscenarioexists

Reducesearchcosts
Provide"correct"proposals
Usersknowinadvancewhattheywant

Recommendationperspective

Serendipity identifyitemsfromtheLongTail
Usersdidnotknowaboutexistence

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WhendoesaRSdoitsjobwell?

Recommenditems
fromthelongtail

"Recommendwidely
unknownitemsthat
usersmightactually
like!"

20%ofitems
accumulate74%ofall
positiveratings

Itemsrated>3in
MovieLens100K
dataset

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Purposeandsuccesscriteria(2)

Predictionperspective

Interactionperspective

Predicttowhatdegreeuserslikeanitem
Mostpopularevaluationscenarioinresearch

Giveusersa"goodfeeling"
Educateusersabouttheproductdomain
Convince/persuadeusers explain

Finally,conversionperspective

Commercialsituations
Increase"hit","clickthrough","lookerstobookers"rates
Optimizesalesmarginsandprofit
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Recommendersystems
RSseenasafunction
Given:
Usermodel(e.g.ratings,preferences,demographics,situationalcontext)
Items(withorwithoutdescriptionofitemcharacteristics)

Find:
Relevancescore.Usedforranking.

RelationtoInformationRetrieval:
IRisfindingmaterial[..]ofanunstructurednature[..]thatsatisfiesan
informationneedfromwithinlargecollections[..].
(Manning et al. 20081)
(1)Manning,Raghavan,andSchtze,Introductiontoinformationretrieval,CambridgeUniversityPress,2008

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Paradigmsofrecommendersystems
Recommendersystemsreduce
informationoverloadbyestimating
relevance

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Paradigmsofrecommendersystems
Personalizedrecommendations

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Paradigmsofrecommendersystems
Collaborative:"Tellmewhat'spopular
amongmypeers"

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Paradigmsofrecommendersystems
Contentbased:"Showmemoreofthe
samewhatI'veliked"

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Paradigmsofrecommendersystems
Knowledgebased:"Tellmewhatfits
basedonmyneeds"

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Paradigmsofrecommendersystems
Hybrid:combinationsofvariousinputs
and/orcompositionofdifferent
mechanism

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Outlook
PartI(BasicConcepts)

Basicparadigmsofcollaborative,
contentbased,and
knowledgebasedrecommendation,
aswellashybridizationmethods.
Explainingthereasonsforrecommendinganitem
Experimentalevaluation

PartII(RecentResearchTopics)
Howtocopewitheffortstoattackandmanipulatearecommendersystem
fromoutside,
supportingconsumerdecisionmakingand
potentialpersuasionstrategies,
recommendationsystemsinthecontextofthesocialandsemanticwebs,and
theapplicationofrecommendersystemstoubiquitousdomains
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