Foraus

Foraus is a public policy think tank that aims to involve university students in finding solutions to major issues such as climate change.

Initially, Foraus used Facebook and WhatsApp to coordinate workshops and facilitate conversations between participants. But social media and messaging tools weren’t very effective when people needed to collaboratively create policy ideas. People ended up using word processors to write documents and share them with only small groups of other participants, which seriously limited the collaborative environment that Foraus wanted to foster. So the think tank decided to create Policy Kitchen, a collaborative platform for drafting and discussing policy documents.

To power Policy Kitchen, Foraus needed a rich text editor with:

Policy Kitchen is a web-based social hub for discussing and formulating policy, with CKEditor 5 built in. The platform has a community section, where users can socialize and discuss issues, and a policy ideation section. It was especially important to Foraus that the ideation section allowed people to discuss their ideas and collaboratively write policy solution documents. "We are a community, not just a tool," says senior project manager Jonas Nakonz.

Using CKEditor 5 means people no longer have to resort to isolated word processors and basic file sharing methods to create draft documents. Now, Policy Kitchen users can work together in real time from anywhere in the world. “We really try to emphasize collaboration, and real-time collaborative software is a unique invention in making open ideation more collaborative,” says Jonas. Policy Kitchen users can enhance their documents with tables and media embeds, too.

Since rolling out Policy Kitchen, Foraus has seen 1,300+ people sign up to the platform. Users based around the world have contributed to policy documents published by Foraus. “Policy Kitchen has already allowed us to publish quality policy papers based on collaborative work with hundreds of participants from five continents at a time," says Jonas.

In addition to seeing more engagement and better quality policy papers, Jonas also expects Policy Kitchen to boost their media profile and business opportunities at Foraus. The company is already planning to offer Policy Kitchen as a service to other organizations, including think tanks and governments. As a place to collaborate on public policy, Jonas says Policy Kitchen is unique: "Other open ideation platforms stress competition. We stress collaboration."