Big Ideas: Understanding patterns of behaviour for users of public records

When Google launched in 1998, a prime ingredient in their
not-so-secret sauce was the question: if a user randomly clicked
links where on the web might they end up?


They called the answer PageRank. This involved treating the web
as a network rather than a bunch of isolated documents containing
keywords. The outcome was a new verb and the near destruction of
their competitors. Could repeating and refining 'the Google
trick' help cultural bodies with research, collection care or
digitisation?


One limitation to overcome is the assumption that all users
behave in the same way. Users are individuals within fuzzy
communities. So, can we personalise PageRank and treat people
more like individuals than averages?


Matthew Pearce, from The National Archives, works on public
sector information - in particular, its economics. His research
is on the statistics and algorithms needed for personalised
predictions.