Expert locators and recommender systems

Abstract

This entry describes two important classes of systems that facilitate the sharing of recommendations and expertise. Recommender systems suggest items of potential interest to individuals who do not have personal experience with the items. Expert locator systems, an important subset of recommender systems, help find people with the appropriate skills, knowledge, or expertise to meet a particular need. Research related to each of these systems is relatively new and extremely active. The use of these systems is likely to continue increasing as more and more activity is implicitly captured online, making it possible to automatically identify experts, and capture preferences that can be used to recommend items.