Clinton’s YouTube Interview on the Eve of CGI Annual Meeting

Yesterday, YouTube’s CitizenTube channel released its highly anticipated interview with former President Bill Clinton, on the eve of the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

For the past five years, CGI has brought together current and former heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize winners, leading global CEOs, major philanthropists and foundation heads, directors of non-governmental organizations, and prominent members of the media in order to, according to the organization’s website, “help our world move beyond the current state of globalization to a more integrated global community of shared benefits, responsibilities, and values.”

At the New York meeting, which will be broadcast live on Livestream, these leaders will make public “Commitments to Action” supporting ideas and organizations who are tackling some of the world’s biggest problems. This year’s meeting will focus on empowering women and girls, market-based solutions to problems, access to modern technology, and harnessing human potential.

Similar to the Katy Perry and President Obama

interviews, the Clinton interview makes use of the conversation and polling tool Google Moderator, which allows channels to poll their audiences in a way that’s more structured than sifting through a heap of text comments or video responses.

The Clinton interview, hosted by YouTube’s Steve Grove, features video questions which have been submitted and voted upon for a week or so prior to the interview. A resident in Haiti, a representative from the International Center for Research on Women, friends of Josh Fattal (one of the three American hikers who have been imprisoned in Iran for over a year), and others asked questions ranging from specific challenges outlined in the CGI agenda to questions about current events (such as the President’s opinion on the proposed Mosque at Ground Zero).

Here is the live webcast of the CGI Annual Meeting: