Paul Resnick proposed the following working definition of collaborative filtering: "Guiding people's choices of what to read, what to look at, what to watch, what to listen to (the filtering part); and doing that based on information gathered from some other people (the collaborative part)."

My practice in knowledge management has spanned nearly two decades. I began this anthology about 4 years ago and use it as a simple repository of ideas and insights from other sources. I use it as a catalyst for new idea generation and it is not intended for formal publication. Think of my anthology as an example of "collaborative filtering" in the knowledge management community.
— Hubert Saint-Onge