Civic Hack DC 2026– Part 2: From Prototype to Production

​Civic Hack DC is back.

​At Civic Hack DC 2025, technologists, policy experts, designers, data practitioners, and civic-minded volunteers explored what could be built with federal regulatory comment data.

​Now we’re taking the next step: from prototype to production.

​Part 2 will build on SpicyRegs and the original Civic Hack DC 2025 problem statements to create production-level open-source MVP tools for making public comments easier to search, analyze, understand, and act on.

​This time, we’re focused on tools that can continue beyond demo day.

​What Makes Part 2 Different

​Part 1 was about exploring what is possible.

​Part 2 is about building what can actually be used.

​We are organizing teams around real work groups, judges, advisors, and product-owner partners who can help define needs, validate assumptions, and guide teams toward practical tools.

​Together, teams will ask:

• ​Who is this tool for?
• ​What workflow does it support?
• ​What would make it trustworthy enough to use?
• ​What is the smallest useful version we can ship?

• ​What should continue after the hackathon?

​Judging and feedback will focus on usefulness, feasibility, accessibility, trust, documentation, and potential for real-world impact.