This article examines the Hollywood Stock Exchange and gives basic information about its usage and what happens with the collected data.  In the case of HSX, the value lies not in the prediction of the future, but rather the accumulation of the preferences (tied to the demograpic information) of the average users.  That data is then sold to production companies who can adjust their upcoming films, and determine more intelligent money allocation based on their consumers.  This model works two ways, predicting the value of actors, producers and movies and also informing the film industry about what the average consumer desires. 

    While the Hollywood Stock Exchange does not release their demographic information on their website, they operate an entire research end that enables studios to selectively purchase certain types of data collected.  In this case it is important for the average person to join in on the trading, not only to get data on the target audience but also to give reason to attract experts, who see opportunity to do well.  These experts' opinions are important and might not be harnessed in other more traditional methods.

    Collective Intelligence is described here as a tool to be harnessed, since crowds can also have negative or difficult characteristics in most other contexts and are generally not preferred to deal with "directly".  The formed collective can almost be thought of as a almost a distinct individual or expert according to Watkins.  Prediction markets here are examined as "sophistocated aggregation tools" bringing together communities of self-selected individuals who already perhaps have an emotional investment in the issues.  Watkins is also concerned with issues of trust and how to cultivate public trust in collective intelligence as a reliable source of information.

    Watkins touches on the characteristics of particular communities and the individuals who are drawn to prediction markets, an area that I plan on focusing on more intesively through the study of forums and demographic data on each of the particular sites.  In additon, the notion of trusting this collective prediction over that of the experts interacts interestingly with Surowiecki's theory that they experts often partake in the predicting.