Confetto Increases User Interactivity at Devoxx
by Kevin Nilson
This year Devoxx will be using Confetto to allow conference attendees to interact with each other. At first Confetto looks like just another chat tool, but actually it's much more. Confetto allows users to make comments about conference sessions and post questions about the session. If you see a question someone else has asked and you also have the same questions then, you can vote up the existing question. Confetto also contains a realtime tag cloud from all "recent" text comments and questions entered in Confetto. Clicking on any tag cloud tag will open all sessions in Confetto that an attendee has recently typed the selected tag. Finally confetto contains a tab that shows all messages typed in Confetto at Devoxx.
Confetto is an open source tool written in Java and Python. Confetto uses comet to provide realtime interactivity. Comet provides the ability for Confetto to update all users browsers with new questions and comments as they are posted. Users of Confetto can also see as other users join and leave a Confetto session. The tag cloud and all message tab are written in Java and using Cometd on Jetty. The main interface of Confetto for posting messages and questions is Python based running Orbited.
I encourage Devoxx attendees to use Confetto before Devoxx to post questions you would like speakers to address during your talk. You will see Confetto at the bottom right of each session page of Devoxx. I also encourage Devoxx attendees to continue to make comments and post question during each Devoxx session.
I encourage speakers to use Confetto to see what types of questions session attendees have prior to your talk. I also encourage speakers to turn to Confetto during Q&A at the end of your session to make sure most popular questions are answered. Speakers can also use Confetto to poll the audience prior to their talk to gather information about attendee's prior knowledge of a topic. Then attendees can vote up the appropriate poll answer. I recommend prefixing poll questions with "poll:" So attendees can recognize question is for an audience poll. An example of a poll would be, "poll: this is my first year attending Devoxx", "poll: this is my second year attending Devoxx", and "poll: I have attended Devoxx at least 2 previous years".
After Devoxx is over comments and questions will be added to the session wiki page and the speaker will have the opportunity to post answers to any questions. I hope the highly user interactive features of Confetto add to your enjoyment of Devoxx.
If you run and conference please consider using Confetto to make your conference more user interactive. To learn more visit http://confetto.org
