YouTube, CNN and Presidential Debates

When I think of YouTube, it's usually to watch some entertaining, hilarious or potentially wacky video a friend sent me. The thought that YouTube could also present an opportunity to ask one of our presidential candidates a question hadn't occurred to me. At least, that is until a friend just told me about YouTube and and CNN partnering to give folks the chance to ask questions via video for the upcoming U.S. presidential candidate debates. According to the site, YouTube and CNN will be accepting user submissions throughout the summer and fall, with the first debate being held in Charleston, SC on July 23rd (user submissions will be accepted until July 22nd).

For those people who are spontaneous or constantly on the go and don't have a lot of time to go through the process of setting up a digital camcorder (like me), you can use your Treo smartphone to create and submit your video question (just use YouTube's new mobile feature and MMS your video to your YouTube account; then visit the debate portal, sign in and select the video you would like to submit). Of course, you can also use a standard digital camcorder or other mobile device. For more details and to submit your question, check out http://www.youtube.com/debates.

And if you'd rather just sit back and watch, you can also use apps like Kinoma for your Palm Treo to check out the videos of other folks asking what they want to know (there's more than 1,200 so far). Who knows, you might just learn something in the process about the candidates or your fellow voters that could have an impact on your decision for '08.

So regardless of what side of the political fence you sit on (or if you haven't quite decided yet), here's just one more way you can speak up and get involved.

Melissa Cha - Associate General Counsel

Comments

[roman]

You should note that you need to buy Kinoma and it doesn't come with the Treo, even the latest 755p.

[Alan]

Just tried mobile uploading to youtub from a Treo 700p on Sprint. It works, but Sprint limits a video to 512kb (which is about 5 seconds at the normal resolution) for sending thru MMS. Lowering the resolution extends the time, but the video is not clear at the size youtube displays it.

[George]

Whats up with the Palm Blog? Articles on issues that are totally unrealted to our Palm devices. Is it possible that as a long time Palm customer that instead of this stuff, we can get some idea of when the highest end device that Palm sells, the 750v will be getting a much needed ROM update? Disappointing as usual.

[mossinsc]

It's easy to submit questions. I have the question, "save endangered animals"...#319. It's been fun to try this.

[Garman]

I can understand you not approving comments that are not related to a blog post but what is there to do when a blog post does not seem related to the blog itself.

Your article makes it clear that there is nothing unique about using the Palm for submitting video because there are alternatives that will do the same. I am sure the case is the same with viewing.

I am left wondering if this post is really relevant to a Palm Blog. Indeed, there is nothing in the title to distinguish it from any you would find on any other blog about web video and/or politics.

What is going on with Palm? Will you really continue to ignore the community with posts like these? Do you feel any sense of obligation to address your customer's continuous request for a Widescreen device that could truly display video in a more user friendly way? Any word on the Foleo or Treo 800. Apple gave not only 6 months notice of month of release but also a full demo.

P.S. This post is definitely on topic, not rude, and relevant.

Thank you.

[Carol]

Not exactly what I thought would be waiting for me when I clicked on the Palm blog feed in my RSS reader. Still kind of interesting though, regardless of how basic the feature is of capturing video.

[Roger Sampson]

Garman, while I agree with your comments that it would be nice to have a widescreen Treo and more info on new devices (especially Foolio...opps I mean Foleo), not quite sure how you think the post isn't related to the Palm blog. It talks about using a Treo to take video for the upcoming debates. Seems relevant to me. Anyways Palm info on new devices would be most welcome. This post is interesting too, but I prefer meat with my potatoes

[Ken]

I used Sprint 755 and was able to upload a 12 second clip. Took me a couple times to get my question right in that amount of time, but it still works.

[paulm]

excuse me george and garmin, ummm... the iPhone, one of the hottest topics on mobile phones today, does not capture video so i think this article is a great way to differentiate Palm devices and why they are great. and the 750v highest end device palm has... last i checked they only have 1 low end device and that's still higher end than most devices on the market so get over yourself already. unless of course you were being facetious in which case *chuckle*. i can't wait for Palm or any company for that matter to start building products based on blog posts. yay general public opinion!