• Cheap and easy: The method had to be feasible for potentially all countries in the world to participate, regardless of financial income and general education level.
• Clear link to policy-making: It had to address issues of immediate relevance to policy-makers.
• Both global and national: It had to be salient to both national and global decision-making.
• Clear and comparable results: Results had to be comparable across countries and regions and they had to be easy to communicate to policymakers.
• Informed citizens: Citizens had to be provided with the balanced information necessary in order to understand the issues debated.
• Deliberation: Citizens should be given the opportunity to discuss their views with each other before defining their own standpoints.
• Qualitative and quantitative: The citizens should have opportunity to phrase their own recommendations as well as voting on alternative answers to predefined questions.

On this basis, it was decided to have large groups of citizens (roughly 100) meet in each of their respective countries or regions to deliberate on an identical set of questions, using identical meeting designs, and then connect these meetings and their results through web technology.

The WWViews method differs in important ways from conventional opinion polls. Although the sample size of 100 per country or region somewhat limits the national statistical validity of the results, it is nonetheless large and diverse enough to give a sense of general trends in national and international opinions.

Unlike opinion polls, the WWViews method provides respondents with balanced and scientifically based information, as well as an opportunity to deliberate for a full day with other citizens prior to rendering their judgments. It thus allows for more detailed questions and well-considered responses.

Here you can read more about the World Wide Views Method, a full World Wide Views Project Desription and more about the organization structure within the WWViews Alliance.

Also recommended:

Citizen Participation in Global Environmental Governance Edited by Richard Worthington, Mikko Rask, Lammi Minna (Routledge, October 2011)

Book about WWViews on Global Warming (Source: www.routledge.com)