Working on a civic tech project? Apply to GovLab’s ‘coaching programs’ for help

Have you wanted to learn about how to do better civic hacking? For example, by better accessing the crowd or using open data or making Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests more effectively?
Now there are a series of short, free, application-only courses that you can take online, run by a nonprofit that recently relocated to Metrotech.
The Governance Lab (or GovLab) “is an action-research center with a mission to improve people’s lives by changing the way we govern,” according to its website. The organization is running 12 coaching programs — four online sessions each — on all sorts of topics (listed below). Applications for the first three close today. The next round, for the following three programs, are due by March 6.
Apply now
The first three programs are on civic tech for legislators, using FOIA and citizen science online. The next round is on crowd power, civic tech procurement and open source in civic engagement.
While the programs are online, they are small. Just ten participants in each group are admitted, so each person will get real feedback and interaction with the experts involved, and their peers. GovLab made this infographic about the scope of each program:

Classes for the first groups will start the week of March 2. Funding from the Knight Foundation has made it possible to offer the courses free of charge.
We previously encountered GovLab discussing the economic benefits of governments opening up their data at the Transatlantic Science Forum in early 2014.