I decided to wait until they were over to comment on what has to be one of the more interesting cross-overs between the terrestrial and digital world that I have recently seen, the most Democratic presidential debates, where the questions were created by webizens and posted on YouTube.

CNN

The debate was sponsored by CNN and is part one of a two part series. The second will be held in Florida on September 17th when it will be the Republican’s time to sound off. All politics aside, this debate proves that the convergence between the YouTube generation and traditional media is becoming less ludicrous.

The way that it worked was that users submitted questions, the “best” were chosen and these videos clips were used during the debate itself. It was really amazing to see social media used in such a high profile, national event.

Honestly, I would be happier if the entire debate was made available on YouTube or was streamed live for our viewing pleasure but I suppose you can only ask for so much. I imagine most of it will be available in one form or another in twelve hours or so.

Here are a few sample questions from the bull pit.

Questions

Are you a Liberal?

Who would you pick as a Republican running mate?

Are the troops dying in vain?

Web 2.0 Roundup

Complex questions which I won’t even begin to touch here; however, the fact that such a large swatch of the nation was polled to generate them is a testament to the power of social media. We can only hope that there will come a point when its possible to affect true Democracy through the use of the web, where we can all be connected and the voice of democracy was no more than a tweet away.

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