presumpiable presidential candidate. but he's not a nominee and did not win the re-election and lost by 7000 votes and there were a few that believed that was not a part. and you see that, and the magnitude of what you unleashed? what is your sense? how do you reflect on that, the fundamental tentics of democracy changing because we can see something unedited? >> looking at something like that, and i was in the audience and wanted to

capture something whether appalling or for recordkeeping, but to keep something for record sake and show it. a lot of people would encounter this and be appalled but no way to share. and before youtube and prior to e-mails and the internet. there was the see experience and probably forget, or personally remember and the rest of the world forget. with the advent of both images now able to share easily with im and e-mails and the biggest experience with videos. being able to capture and show to anyone in the world that has an internet connection, they can experience. and specifically about this video, i think that the transformation of youtube at the end the day, what we bring to the table is a

platform to upload content and to be able to show this content to anyone in the world. and a low barrier entry for people to watch the content and get it out there. i think that all the things we have seen, these stories we have seen written by certain youtube videos, everything that's come out in the last three years, is taking advantage of this platform. people had this content on their video cameras, but unable to share it, maybe e-mail but never to the point where you can put a video up like this and within hours and hundreds of thousands see this video. and it continues to spread. and hundreds of thousands they share with their 20 friends and families. and it continues to spread. and before it would be impossible if you had this content, no matter, there was no way to share it. >> it begs the question, and

this has to be the most challenging for youtube, at what point, you don't get into a political messaging, that could be a democrat or republican, and how do you stay out what is appropriate to be shared on your platform and what is inappropriate to be shared? >> i think there are a few key areas in terms of content that we end up pulling down from youtube. and you certainly have experienced links where the friends have sent the video and no longer available because it's taken down from the site. there are certain requirement that the video must meet when uploaded but also keep after uploaded. the biggest one is on

copyrighted site, and there are those edited and makes it easy to add a video clip from some other source or add a mp-3, music file into the background. and people don't realize you don't have the distribution rights, even if you purchased the cd's, you don't have the distribution rights to air it to hundreds of people. and when we take down this content, it would be inferred we were against it, the message in the video. and we are trying to get the message out, that most of the time that we take down the videos, it failed the checks in the system, that it contains content owned by a party of a professional content. and there are violent videos and videos that show

profanity and nudity and extreme violence. and we do take those videos down. but also want to say, it's always initiated by user action. at the bottom of every video, there is an icon that flags this video. we don't have a team that goes out and watches videos all day and which is okay to keep up. or a log book of the requirements. everything is always initiated by users. and if the user community feels strongly to keep the system clean. any time there is a video that infringes on somebody's feelings, they can click on it, flag it and then the team at youtube, internally will review these videos. >> i imagine, do you find people are manipulating that

based on political preference? one person's video about being pro-life may be offensive to someone pro-choice or vice versa. how does that, how do you avoid the subjectivity inherent in human beings of viewing something, particularly in the political concept? >> more broadly there is a barrier of european union, and versus u.s., we have a tendency to accept violent videos but not nudity. and it's reversed in europe. when we get these calls about this video contains violence, we need to take these videos down. if we inforced the american regulation filter on what we think should be kept up and down, it would be unfair for a majority of the world.

so we try to take a per country basis and take into consideration the local culture as well as the people involved. and try to deliver the best video platform for the actual country and people and culture of that country. >> how many countries are you in? i know you have had some point of entry, and those in turkey and saudia arabia. and how do you confront those? are you seen in the theme of youtube in the political realm of those countries as well? >> yeah, it continues to surprise me at least, this is personally, when i see a new sort of developing method in which, the youtube

platform is used and adopted. and on the politics and outside of the election year, this year, i think there is a lot. i remember when i say president saricosy when he was elected and tony blair sent a message in youtube, one was in french and one in english. and if to send that message, i don't know if there was another channel to say thank you and congratulations. i think prior to youtube it would be difficult to get that message out globally. and with the australian elections and canadian elections and in the primary, seven the 16 candidates announced on youtube.

and it's probably the best vehicle to deliver that message than on the certain block of time on television. sometimes you want to get in the computer and have more of a personal impact on the users and voters. >> and literally seven of the candidates for president, announced not in town halls but youtube which says how important candidates place this. and i imagine it allows for more level playing field for third party candidates, for lesser known candidates. are you finding more interest by lesser known and third party candidates and information for them to find ways to get more engaged in the use of youtube and to

advance the scope to be a part of the democratic process? >> yeah, in the similar vane, if you were to browse youtube, you would find a random lottery of videos, they will be entertaining but differing on how how much production money went into the videos. you will find some that are original and creative, but however you will see that it's amateur. and then those produced by nike and million dollar studios. and it's them sitting side by side and it's up to the user to decide which is entertaining or not. and as it pertains to the political sphere, in delivering the message, about delivering the right

message, and gets to the content and i think you can erase what historically has been a barrier of entry of people, to deliver the message , because you don't have access to set up the video. or prime time television. if the content is good and the message is true to what the users want to hear. >> george allen, said i can't do that, i didn't mean to say that, this is an anomaly, steve, you are a great guy. help me, just edit this thing. you say? >> no, you don't take the call. >> if that's what they say? >> true to that, you can search for my name and find a lot of embarrassing videos. >> so you don't take out your own stuff? >> it's tempting.

>> okay, you have access. seriously, this is all unedited and you want to fix something that's not offensive, like hillary clinton singing star spangled banner or me singing, i left my heart in san francisco. we can't get that edited? >> maybe, i left my heart in san francisco. >> yeah, but what if people say things that they regret, it's out there for the world to see. does it disappear or on there for a month or two? is there an expiration date? the impact is permanent, and you have those on the nightly news, and then it

ends up in a vault. but here it ends up in a universe that's endless for access. >> yeah, you can divide the content in two large portions, one of them is more especially in the politics side, candidates wanting to get their message out and this message is approved by this. and on the other side are those not approved. videos in times where the spotlight turns off. when they think the camera is turned off, and they start coming back and talking. and once those things are captured with the regret it's posted on youtube. but at the end the day it's beneficial to the voters and users, to be able to see not just the camera-on perspective, but the other half.

>> do you sense though, the flip side of that is potentially politicians become so political they are on before they get out of the car? or walk out of their home? because they know inevitably someone is sitting there with a cell phone videotaping you? do you think there is a concept of being less awe -- authentic than reality tv? >> one, youtube has come out with videos, but prior to this has been a wealth of other options available to journalists and users about taking pictures and posting this content online. incredibly through the development of the web and getting that into people's homes, we have seen people a little more careful because since the internet has boomed in the last 10 years, things that have been

difficult to get out, all of a sudden over night in a matter of hours can spread across the entire world. i think at the end the day, still this is whether or not the politicians need to be on all the time, maybe that's a good thing. maybe there shouldn't be a darker side. so i think -- but i think whatever it comes out to at the end the day, whatever is good for the -- whatever ends getting uploaded to youtube. and anything else, from bloging and taking pictures from your camera and uploading these things easier is good for the voters at the end. >> certainly more accountability in that context. and you talked about and it's interesting, i hear

about television commercials of candidates running that never appear on tv. they are created for youtube and go up and broadcasts and picks up free for the campaign. one of those, and i want to queue this next video up, had in three days, 600,000 individual viewers. and in the forensic history of this primary, may have been a big influence in the clinton/obama race. i will bring it to them. >> so far we haven't stopped talking. and that's really good. i continue to keep telling you exactly where i stand on all the issues. >> i am looking how to help you and other people that are hard working like you, and i really been impressed how serious people are. and we all need to be a part

of the discussion and solution. i don't want people that already agree with me, i want honest experienced patriotic people that want to be a part of a team, the american team. i hope you have learned a little more about what i am believing and trying to do. and really help this conversation about this country be started. >> i hope to keep this conversation until november, 2008. >> so, pretty powerful. and i misspoke, 100,000 people immediately saw that video. and hillary clinton having to answer the critique of

this legitimate conversation you are having, senator. and this video sparked a lot of controversy and it was put on by park ridge 47, and who is this guy? and you remember this 1984 video, apple computer going after ibm. i am told did this in his basement and threw it up on youtube. what do you think when you see that? you have to be proud on some level, and not that you are an obama or clinton, but the significance of this? >> yeah, you said of the numbers, the surprise to me and all of us internally, the amount of media coverage this received. the number of people, the

numbers of people that watches this from all over the world, that watched this video. i think it goes to illustrate again, this is something that people wanted. and across this phenomena of youtube, i think has more so that people were wanting a vehicle to distribute content. they wanted to share content they felt strongly about and there was no way to do that before. after the first iterations of videos on their computers, you started seeing more professional content being shared online. other thing i was really surprised, we recently did the debates for cnn for the democratic and republicans. from what i recall, we received record numbers of people tuned into both

debates. both democratic and republican. and 3.5 million on democrat and 5.5 on republican. and that was basically opening the debates with videos submitted by users and asking questions. and we received over 8,000 questions that came in. and some were funny, but it meant i think, it was more impacting because you actually saw the users, you saw the voters in their own setting and home, and talking about the issues they were experiencing. not just someone reading this stuff off of an index card. the number of people watching, the number of people submitting questions for this, and all the numbers at the end the day, tell me some is something that people want to be engaged and involved in the political process. this is maybe one the ideal

mediums that allow users. >> how did that debate come about? did cnn contact you and say we had an idea to use youtube in a different way? >> i think -- i don't know who initiated but once it was planted. both to bring youtube to this level and it's a platform for people to be serious about politics. >> i remember mitt romney opposing the debate, and a melting snow man, and i am running for president of the united states, and to have a melting snowman to ask me a question about climate change. it didn't work in his favor. but ultimately he

participated in that republican debate, and the numbers were huge. and begs this question, what is next in that context? are we going to expect in the next three debates, anything that you can tell that the prospect that youtube will play a role in that and vice president debate? perhaps more interesting for some. >> well --. do you have any palin videos? that's more personal. >> [laughter]. >> totally unfair. you were thinking it. >> i forget, what was the question? >> i imagine that wasn't just one off of youtube, the cnn debates. is there a desire for other networks to participate in this, are you guys going to be involved in the upcoming

presidential campaign? >> i am not specific about youtube's involvement in the presidential debates. but there is upstreaming questions and both candidates have channels on youtubes and hundreds of thousands are scribed into to -- these. and when obama has a new site, they are informed and they can share these videos at any time. you don't have to be tuned into a station at a specific time. it has become a vehicle outside of the debate, and to get a message that can be

also referenced and watched by the viewers. >> is that a youchoose channel? >> that's a program that we put together in 2007-2008. we noticed that politicians were using u. -- youtube to get the message out. so with youchoose we captured and get the official channel by the candidates running. and as we evolved and came closer and closer to november, we saw more and more people respond to the videos, and respond and have an open forum for users to ask them questions. and they would have to record themselves in a video to respond. and it's that interplay that may be unique youtube that's

unique to that. and not that read reaction to politicians. >> do you have a whole set of team of youtube that's working with the various campaigns? how does that work? how many people now work for youtube? >> i think it's, it's a little harder to say these days, after google, the parts that we always wanted to maintain as -- to keep within the ceiling walls of youtube was the concept and design. and for the side and part of the youtube and google. but specific to the team, there is a sort of content team out there that works with local content

producers, even outside of politics, we have a team that's in charge of independent musicians and work with them about the tools they can use. say movie directors that are amateurish that want to get their content out there. but these are small teams and providing resources. on the politics side, these teams are trying to facilitate and answers questions of what is possible and give advice on what others have done. and the actual work is done by the candidates and teams and the creative concept. >> what about in denver, at the convention, you had a big youtube booth and every politician was lining up and saying, please let me in.

it was remarkable, i have never seen anything like it, you sat back and watched and wait for the hand picked people. how did you organize that? are the democrats more engaged in this? are the republicans more engaged? i mean is one party figured this out a little more than others. there is no favoritism, or are you? these are questions that folks ask. >> i think both, in st. paul as well as denver, both set up a booth. the important thing for youtube is to be able to be the platform that people go to and trust as being a reliable place to be with this content. they feel they can go to youtube and watch the content and share it and

know this verifiable content from the politicians. and yeah, the remarkable observation about the number of people coming to the booth. and especially the politicians coming to the booth about delivering the message. secretly it's pleasurable to see that. i think for them it's a proof that youtube is a powerful platform and you need to engage in. because other people are at the other end of the line watching from youtube and you. >> right, what do you see the evolution? technology is increasing at a fast pace. i see the small cameras that people have. and you look at the old george allen video and it seems like 1984, the quality was so bad and now it seems so good.

you a chief technology officer, not just a co-founder, where is technology taking us? fast track to the next presidential cycle, how do you think that youtube will be front and center in framing the debate of 2012, or for that matter of 2010 on elections and what happening on the local level? do you see that for city council races as engaged for senate races? >> i think it's difficult, anyone on the technology side to predict what will happen in four years from now. because so much is changed. when we first released youtube, we picked a resolution that you see on the video box, it's 340 by 320, it was low quality, the quality was low enough that anyone with an internet