• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 15, 2007

While previous presidential-campaign debates featured candidate questions from a studio audience or more recently submitted via e-mail, CNN is taking user-involvement a step further. The network will take viewer questions in video form from would-be voters for two debates over the next several months.

The grassroots videos will be uploaded on YouTube. CNN will then cull through them for the most compelling and relevant questions to play live on-air. Questions could either be directed to an individual candidate or the whole field.

The first debate to employ viewer-generated videos will be held July 23 in South Carolina among the Democratic candidates. The Republican debate will air Sept. 17 in Florida. The events are branded "The CNN YouTube Debates."

It's unclear how many of the approximately 30-second videos will actually make appearances on-air, due to the timing dynamics. For example, candidate answers could be lengthy and/or the amount of follow-ups that host Anderson Cooper permits could consume time. The events will last two hours, and perhaps 30 videos could be broadcast.

Videos cannot be longer than 30 seconds, in keeping with YouTube's emphasis on shorter content. The initiative has a home page presence on the video-sharing site, where CNN's Cooper says in a video: "I'm going to be hosting the event. But frankly, I'm not going to be doing very much because it's going to be your questions that are asked, and your videos which are being shown ... just keep it clean."

After the debates, the candidates' answers will be posted on the site, which has sought to establish a beachhead in the 2008 campaign via its "You Choose '08" efforts.

"YouTube enables voters and candidates to communicate in a way that simply was not possible during the last election," said Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube. "For the first time in the history of presidential debates, voters from around the country will be able to ask the future president of the United States a question in video form and hear the answer."

CNN's coverage of the debates will also include an Internet presence with a simulcast on CNN.com, along with its radio, airport TV and international feeds.