The thing that excites me most (as a realist with a soft spot for anarchy) is the potential for crowdfunding to deliver public goods.
One example is a pitch I saw at DjangoCon, someone was running a kickstarter campaign for a detailed open-source tutorial for some software (if not a public good, open-source is definitely a commons). I just saw another on crowdtilt's [testimonials page](https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns). Apparently some enterprising Dallas residents have come up with a [direct, real-world response](http://i.imgur.com/1LI5U.png) to the ever-present whine, "but who will build the roads!".
There are a lot of industries where crowdfunding makes the most sense as a payment mechanism. There are always ads in college dorms for package deals on spring break trips to Florida or ski weekends - they will be so much easier to make happen with crowdfunding.
As the activation energy for getting folks together to do fun stuff gets lowered, I'm excited to see what event planning companies start coming up with. Surely there are new party/travel/event offerings that now make business sense thanks to crowdfunding.
and it's natural behavior too. doing stuff as as group requires making sure everybody is financially committed. I think that's the whole value of not collecting the payment until everybody paid/committed.
That's where technology trumps real life. if you collect cash from people, you have to return it.
One example is a pitch I saw at DjangoCon, someone was running a kickstarter campaign for a detailed open-source tutorial for some software (if not a public good, open-source is definitely a commons). I just saw another on crowdtilt's [testimonials page](https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns). Apparently some enterprising Dallas residents have come up with a [direct, real-world response](http://i.imgur.com/1LI5U.png) to the ever-present whine, "but who will build the roads!".