Prediction strategies: Combining prediction techniques to optimize personalization

An important step in providing personalized information, such as personalized electronic program guides, is predicting the level of interest for a specific user in information, such as TV programs. This paper describes a model that can be used to combine prediction techniques, which predict the level of interest, into prediction strategies. Our hypothesis is that prediction strategies optimize the prediction quality and that they lead to more reliable predictions, because they take into account the state of the system, the users and the information. Results of an initial experiment support this hypothesis.