Evaluating Cultural Event Recommendations

Sugestio is conducting an experiment regarding cultural event recommendations in collaboration with CultuurNet Vlaanderen. Everyone that has an account on the website is able to participate. Users that click the Like or Share button at least fifteen times over the course of one month, will receive a personalized set of events that fit their taste. They then have the opportunity to fill out a survey that includes questions on satisfaction, item diversity and surprise effect. Users are randomly divided into groups, with each group receiving recommendations from one particular algorithm. The set of algorithms includes collaborative filtering, content-based techniques and combinations thereof. The results of the experiment will help us  choose the most appropriate algorithm for this type of setting.