Crowdsourcing Objective Answers to Subjective Question

An increasing proportion of web searches are not about facts with a single answer, but rather about facts that are uncertain, in dispute, subjective, or without a single source answer. People increasingly want to know facts about opinions, such as the funniest new movie, whether Republicans will win the next election, or what water filtration system is most highly regarded. The mathematical principle behind the "wisdom of crowds" can allow data scientists to answer these questions despite the imprecision involved. The semantic web will deliver increasing value by allowing mashups of opinions, scientific findings, and factual data, allowing applications to deliver facts about opinions, leveraging the wisdom of crowds.

Ravi Iyer

Ranker

Data Scientist

Ravi Iyer is a 13 year veteran of the technology industry who also holds a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Southern California, where Ravi is currently a post-doctoral researcher, focusing on issues concerning morality and values. Ravi brings technology to academia where the educational platform (YourMorals.org), has educated hundreds of thousands of individuals about their moral profile, while simultaneously providing data for numerous journal publications. As the Director of Data Science for Ranker.com, Ravi uses his academic methods and statistical training to power recommendation algorithms. Specifically interested in how applied moral psychology can improve the human condition, and how technology can improve moral psychology, especially given the volume of data that technology companies collect and the promise of the semantic web to make that data more accessible.

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