Power to the (YouTube) People

Have you folks heard about the CNN/YouTube Debates? In a nutshell (and from the site): "This summer and fall, YouTube, CNN and a few engaged and engaging citizens will make political history by having the presidential candidates answer questions submitted via YouTube videos.

The first debate will feature the Democratic candidates on July 23rd in Charleston, South Carolina. Submit your question for the Democrats between June 14 and July 22 (the earlier the better). The CNN political team will choose the most creative and compelling videos, and if yours is one of them, you may get the chance to fly to Charleston to watch the debate live and offer your reactions afterward on YouTube's political video blog, Citizentube."

I like love this use of user-generated videos to get the candidates talking--and answering--the public. Especially given the news media needs to engage more viewers and work with Web 2.0 platforms (and in some cases, win back some trust that comes from "objectivity" like this). Here's the 53-second video explaining the program, (RSS readers go here):

The guidelines are few and logical (e.g. keep it @30 seconds, stay on subject, speak clearly). But to really "see" the value, it's worth checking out some of the videos. Questions range gay marriage (just enter question #38), the war on poverty (just enter question #43 ), medical marijuana (just enter question #376) and so on and so forth and so many, many more.

While I'm liking loving this debate format, I do have two BIG recommendations:

• Search questions: Allow us to search via subject matter (e.g. War, Economy, HealthCare Coverage) not just by question number. If I missed that, someone please let me know...if not, I'm not sure why they're missing that golden search feature/functionality.
• Share videos: Let us embed the actual user videos onto our blogs. I'm not seeing embeds for that, please correct me if I've missed it. If I haven't missed it, then CNN/YouTube should considering letting us spread the videos--it expands the convo (and only good can come from that level of share).

I am wondering how many questions the candidates will be able to address in the course of the debates--and what will be done with the rest of the questions (I'm hoping it builds more community is my point).

***But here's what really tickles me pink: the questions are from all over, not just America. Questions/videos are coming from Mexico, Australia and Europe. Which means we're finally having a global conversation on our elections. I figure the global convos have been going on anyhow--being the American president affects all nations to some degree, we might as well start engaging in a global conversation, eh? (and I think it will help our image, too). Yup, the world ain't just getting flatter but smaller, too. Yippie!

I'll be watching both these debates to see what I think of the execution of this program and will follow-up, for sure. But anything that gets the government closer to the (user-generated) people is something that surely gets my vote. Thoughts?

PS: I encourage you to take some time to check-out the many questions contributed by fine folks from all over this world; it's democracy in action and it's wonderful to see so many people who have voices and want to be heard, and answered. Thanks to Web 2.0 platforms, this democratic model--and level of access--isn't going away, it will just become stronger (thank goodness!).

Comments

[Mario Vellandi]

I'm happy to see this development so quickly. It's more than I asked for a few months ago in my "Free the Debates" story, and I'm actually surprised the other networks haven't really done anything. Talk about first mover advantage for CNN partnering with THE online video distribution channel people know.
Another good political video aggregator is Jeff Jarvis' site:
http://prezvid.com/

[CK]

@Mario: Thanks, pal. I'll check out Jarvis' site for sure. I'm not sure why the other networks haven't 'engaged' on this level (maybe they have and I've missed it). But in this case it seems CNN is the trailblazer--I just hope they take my 2 reccs as those questions alone could start many, many convos (and YTube is great in large part because of the embed "share"). Also need to search content by keywords---but what is so great is that the questions are from all over. And to that I say, bravo (!) to CNN.

[mindblob]

Excellent idea! I also like the fact that the debate is opened on a world wide scale. You're right about the two questions. I think they are important. I do have a few more :

(*)- HOW are they going to select the questions that are going to be answered and WHO is going to do that? (I thought about letting people vote for the videos, but then what about the minorities?)

Then I scanned a few "very very very" professional videos in the load of films (wireless microphone, film quality, editing, framing, etc). And I'm wondering : WHO did post them if not individuals? - Back to (*)

[Nat_Nudge]

Being from Australia, it is really quite fascinating following the USA presidential elections. IN particular how candidates are utilizing social media.

In research for a podcast, I was doing research on Australian politicians and how they are utilising social media (Australia has a federal Election this year also).

Noticed I could only find one blog out of over 200 members of parliament. Seems like our local politicians have a lot to learn! But our politicians do have a certain affinity for the 1950's (a little backward to say the least).

I think what is also interesting is just how seamless it all seems in regards to politicians embracing these new platforms, and voters accepting / demanding more involvement also.
cheers

[Sean Howard]

LOVE THIS.

It will all come down to how seriously it is treated by the editors (CNN) and the politicians.