Netflix is currently running what may be the greatest software development contest of all time. Back in 2006, they started the contest dubbed the Netflix Prize, which offers $1 million to anyone that can improve upon their Cinematch movie recommendation algorithm by 10%. It sounds like a fairly simple concept that a geeky programmer and mathematician team could tackle in no time at all. Here we are, three years later, and not one of the 50,000 entrants has been able to get to ten percent.
I first heard of this contest via an article in Wired last year. This article showcased a lone psychologist named Gavin Potter that entered the Netflix Prize under the name “Just a guy in a garage”. He had managed to beat out tens of thousands of other entrants to rise to the the top 5 on the leaderboard, competing with prestigious teams from AT&T, Princeton and the University of Toronto. If you have a minute, this Wired articled is a truly interesting read.
Entrants into the Netflix Prize contest are given sample data sets to run through their software, which are then compared to subsequent actual user ratings. If your software can predict anonymous user results 10% better than the current system at Netflix, they will give you $1 million. Of course, you have to share the winning code with Netflix, but they also want you to share it with the world. They figure behavior predicting software like this is worth more than $1 million, and you should be entitled to turn it into a viable business. Kudos to Netflix.
Currently, the leaderboard shows a team called Pragmatic Theory inching closer to the hallowed 10% number. They currently sit at 9.78%. The team consists of an electrical and a software engineer from Montreal, who’s most recent leader-board topping submission came only two days ago. They are so close they can practically reach out and grab the $1 million. For more information on this team, check out a more recent Wired post from yesterday.
Will Pragmatic Theory make it to 10%? A little over a year ago many people thought that goal was unreachable. Now, it seems only a matter of when they will get there.
