When there is news of a high-profile tragedy, such as the one recently at Virginia Tech, I see photos in the paper of flowers left at an outdoor site - usually near the place where the tragedy occured. It is nice that people care enough to want to contribute flowers, but to me there should be a better way to do this. First of all, the flowers are usually left to dry up and die, and then someone has to clean up the mess. My idea is to have people give "electronic" flowers. A permanent memorials website could be set up, with perhaps PayPal being used to collect money to buy "electronic" flowers. The website would have various "flower arrangements" pictured, with a price connected to each one. Then a person would buy the electronic flowers and they would be posted on a webpage with the donor's name (or no name, if desired). The money spent for the electronic flowers could then go into a fund that would be set up for the family or families of the deceased. Each family would have the option of specifying how the money in the fund would be used -- perhaps for funeral expenses, or to go to a charity of their choosing. This would benefit a lot more people than a bunch of wilting flowers left at an accident site, and it would also create a lasting memorial for the deceased. (The website could specify a certain time length for each memorial to remain posted - such as 6 months or a year.) When news of a tragedy would be announced by the media, they could mention the Memorials website.
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Although the aims of the idea seem worthwhile I doubt a virtual memorial would have sufficient emotional effect in comparison to something actual. A memorial is usually observed accidentally by passersby. A virtual memorial would have to be sought out by a surfer and is unlikely to be seen by many people
There is something about the temporal nature of flowers that allows them to fill an emotional need. That said, there should be a way to tie feelings & dollars to get a more lasting effect.