Idea futures markets sometimes also are known as "prediction markets." Wikipedia article on "prediction markets -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market	Wikipedia article about James Surowiecki's book Wisdom of Crowds -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds. Explains how distributed, collective decision-making and information gathering work.
Google search about "prediction markets"	Google search about "idea futures markets"
Google search about "Iowa Electronic Markets"	Google search about "Hollywood Stock Exchange"
Google search on the now-defunct "Political Analysis Market"	Google search on "Tradesports"
Designing real terrorism futures,, a paper by Robin Hanson to appear Charles Rowley (Ed.), The Political Economy of Terrorism, 2006.	Decision Markets by Robin Hanson from IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 14, No. 3. pp. 16-19, May/June, 1999.
The Informed Press Favored the Policy Analysis Market by Robin Hanson, a paper under review by the Journal of Law and Economics.	Idea Futures, an article from Wired, Vol. 3, No. 9, p. 125.
CommerceNet wiki links to the world of prediction markets (i.e., links to research groups, researchers, legal implications, auctions and markets, game theory, and papers).	Prediction Markets As Decision Support Systems, a paper by Berg and Rietz from Information Systems Frontiers, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 79-93, 2003.