How do we decide what to watch?  That is the question.

You’re making decisions by consensus, but are you collaborating? (Photo credit: opensourceway)

When we’re ready to choose the lineup for a movie night, we can totally roll the dice and end up being pleasantly surprised or gravely disappointed. We can read reviews and get recommendations from our friends or on sites like Home Projectionist, for example. And we can use Netflix and Filmaster, among others, that offer suggestion tools as well.

It’s all part of the quest to find that next great movie to watch.

The new web site FOUNDD not only helps an individual identify a match for what he or she should like, but it also provides the ability for group decision making on the subject.

If I’m hosting an at-home movie night, I just don’t know if I want to base my movie night selections on a collaborative decision-making process.

Recommendation tools are intriguing, and they can lead us to some compelling options. But will algorithms make us lazy? Will they lead us to bad — or worse — boring and safe decisions? Will they limit our ability to evolve our tastes and world views? Will no one ever get the blame for choosing a stinker???

I’m going to be stewing on pro’s and con’s of group decision making when creating a shared experience for an at-home movie night.

What do you think? When you are in the process of selecting the programming for your own home viewing events, would you prefer a collaborative decision process or do you want to retain rights as a benevolent dictator?