Collaborative filtering’ for towns

Collaborative filtering: the method of making automatic predictions about the interests of a user by collecting taste information from many users

You’ve used this before, like Amazon’s “Customers who bought this book also bought…” and iTunes’ “Listeners also bought…” where you learn about things you might like based on things liked by like-minded people :)

Now, how about applying ‘collaborative filtering’ to town building for the creative class?

Creative class residents who bought lofts also bought…
– dinners from independent restaurants
– wireless and broadband products
– bicycles, rollerblades and walking shoes
– stainless steel kitchen appliances and/or Ikea furniture

The use of ‘collaborative filtering’ is not only to build more compelling places that make us say, “Wow, this place really gets me,” but also to prevent getting stuck buying a loft over a bunch of Ruby Tuesdays and McD’s surrounded by a huge parking lot with spotty internet access.

Do you use collaborative filtering in your purchase decisions? Speak your mind below…

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neilkt