Collaborative filtering supports meritocratic Internet TV

Following on from my recent story on collaborative filtering for music, it’s worth taking a look at Videobomb (Thanks for the link Steve Rubel!). This enables people to post links to online videos. If enough people vote for the video, it appears on the site’s front page, so users can immediately find the most popular videos. This voting structure is extremely similar to the technology news site Digg, which has rapidly become one of the most popular technology websites around. Videobomb needs to get more users before it reaches critical mass, however its intent is to help provide a platform for Internet TV. On Current TV, the producers choose what to screen from all of the public submissions (see my earlier comments on this). Videobomb’s approach enables the audience to choose what they view. In the words of the website, they want “to create an independent, creative, engaging, and meritocratic TV system for millions of people around the world”. Some way to go towards this objective yet, but I don’t think it will be too long before we do have a system that meets this description.