I'm returning to this thread after chewing on the issue a while, inspired by thenewgreen's post here.

Yes, the "challenge" was an entirely annoying fad, but as thundara points out, it will garner at least an extra $100 million extra towards funding research for ALS. IMHO, that's a drop in the bucket against a neurological disease, but are we seeing a new era of social-media/grassroots/p2p fundraising?

And furthermore, what does that say about our system of taxes? Almost everyone will claim that they're overtaxed, but many* would put money towards what they believe to be a worthy cause. An issue, of course, is that we don't all agree on what a worthy cause is.

So, my main question; Is this ALS stunt one of the first indicators that the pendulum could swing towards a system more centered around truly democratic/representative policy-making, aided by the advent of social media and the Internet?

And, further food for thought; Would centralizing an idea like this even work? Imagine creating a reasonably secure (just pretend it could be perfectly secure, for argument's sake) government-run website where you were credited with your tax dollars after proving your citizenship, and you were allowed to distribute them as you saw fit amongst a list of 10,000 causes. Would the logistical kinks of a system like this be manageable? Is there too much potential for corruption and abuse? Are there overwhelming privacy concerns preventing adoption of this (thanks, NSA)? Maybe a multi-web-domain, distributed media phenomenon like the ice bucket challenge is the only way to do it?

If any one of the three people who's hubwheels turn orange respond to this, I gotta say it was a good day.

*Still, maybe not the majority, and certainly not everyone to the same degree.