This past week I was lucky to be invited to and attend Hackfest 2007 at Kramer Pond Lodge in Alberta, about 1 1/2 hours from Edmonton. This event was put together by Stan Ruecker and Stéfan Sinclair, two of the coordinators of the ongoing Monk Project, which is in the midst of developing an online workbench “designed to help humanities scholars discover and analyze patterns in the texts they study.”

My responsibility was to work alongside Matt Bouchard with the design team, consisting of Milena Radzikowska, Piotr Michura and Stan Ruecker to design some JavaScript screen effects and animations to realize the responsive interface they were imagining for the Workbench. An overview and links to this work can be found on the Monk Wiki, and in the Monk client area. I also contributed the (unsolicited) logo for the event, choosing one of the many memorable catchphrases as our slogan (though “It’s more than just a red box” was a close runner-up)!

The event was a lot of fun. Thanks to the culinary wizardry of Maryanne Wynne, we ate like kings (and queens) at every meal (and several times in between). We were also well looked-after by Gary and the rest of the staff at Kramer Pond Lodge. Highlights for me included my introduction to extreme/pair programming at the suggestion of Stéfan and the steak-tearing jaws of Matt Bouchard, the hot tubs (at their varying states of ‘hotness’), and playing baseball and ultimate on the lawn. Oh, and the work was cool!

I’ve posted photos from the event on my Flickr page, which you can view as a set or slideshow. Here’s to next time!