Q: How does collective intelligence work in a community?
A: Fans know a lot about the object of their affection, but single fans cannot know everything. A community can fill in the blanks, as everyone knows a little. All those bits of information combined form the collective intelligence of a community. So how does collective intelligence work? The internet, and especially a forum is a great way of sharing information. Different topics are meant for people to share thoughts and knowledge. Questions can be posed and answers will be posted by fans who know them. It is very dynamic, as new information can be added all the time, and fans exchange as much information as possible. So you can say that collective intelligence is the term for all the knowledge of all the users/fans combined. But it only works if fans are willing to exchange their knowledge.
Marshall, D. (2002) The New Intertextual Commodity. In: Harries, D. (2002) The New Media Book (London BFI)
Q: How is technology used in the shift from information to experience?
A: Technology (and especially computer technology) can very easily be used to offer consumers a different way of earning knowledge. In the early days of computers, they were mainly used for professional purposes (calculating, textprocessing etc.), but later the computerindustry began developing computers for games (consoles). Game computers were a hit and attracted a vast audience. Personal Computers (PC's) were also being put to use for entertainment, first mainly for simple games. As the internet developed, a shift occurred there as well, from being more informative (websites with information) to becoming very interactive (online games, communities etc.). You can even say that because of the new technology the shift from information to experience was accelerated. So instead of the question posed above, a much more interesting question might be: was technology, and specifically computertechnology, responsible for the shift from information to experience?