Netflix Opens The Source

Netflix is offering $1m to anyone who can improve the performance of their recommendation engine.  Yes, anyone.  “This will be one of the largest truly open prizes that’s ever been done,” said the Netflix CEO, “All you need is a PC and some great insight.”  In an attempt to tap into the power of open source values, the company will release its database of 100m customer ratings.  That's a big deal.  Here's a very successful business spilling its guts onto the web and asking the network to bring its collective brainpower to bear on a central business issue.  In his seminal essay The Cathedral and The Bazaar, Eric Raymond stated that, “Linux was the first project for which a conscious and successful effort to use the entire world as its talent pool.”  He also wrote that he expected, "the open source movement to have essentially won it’s point about software by 2005.  At that point it will become more appropriate to try to leverage open source insights in wider domains”.  Netflix may be giving out data and asking about software but - make no mistake - it's asking people to help improve its business.  (Via Bubblegen).