Policy Commons

Abstract

The creators at Coherent Digital, parent company of Policy Commons, state that their mission is to “tame wild content,” arguing that digitally published information from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), municipal agencies, and others have a short life span and are often lost when organizations close or new reports supersede old ones. Launched in 2020, Policy Commons has quickly expanded beyond its original structure to include three modules. The original content of Policy Commons is now housed in the module Global Think Tanks, which is joined by new modules North American City Reports and World Cities. Users may search all available content either through the main search or by selecting individual modules. Coherent Digital’s other products include Mindscape Commons, Africa Commons, and History Commons, among others. The content varies in both topic and currency, making it potentially useful for a variety of disciplines; and the ease of access to materials that would be difficult or impossible to find on the open Internet adds value to this resource. All collected content is discoverable through a comprehensive, user-friendly search platform, which includes comprehensive filters and Boolean operators and enables browsing of subjects or organizations.