When I talk about data mining and machine learning, the word “drama” is not often used. But it seems that there is a bit of drama going on with the final countdown to the award of the Netflix Prize. Check the leader board to see that BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos has been knocked off the top of the list by The Ensemble.

The crowd is indeed wiser than the individual.

The 10% barrier once seemed distant and insurmountable. But when the contest’s “last call” heralded the heroic achievements of Bellkor’s Pragmatic Theory, the rest of the crowd pondered, and asked why the barrier couldn’t be broken twice.

And lo, as if powered by gravity, Grand Prize Team and Vandelay Industries! began to draw in more and more members. And Vandelay went on to join forces with Opera Solutions, and then Vandelay and Opera united with Grand Prize Team, and then … and then … well, things got so complex we decided just to call ourselves The Ensemble.

Progress is good!