This is a very exciting time to be involved in the public web presence for a large governmental entity.

We see things rapidly changing because of:

The release of a flood of public data to Data.gov and "the cloud."
The ability to transform "data" into brilliant visualizations that drive decisions using relatively new open source tools.
New persuasive design techniques you can use to positively influence Americans

Left unchecked, the danger amongst these changes is that:

You are left with a jumble of web sites, tools and pages that leaves your organization’s online goals unmet.
You fail to meet the ever increasing public demand to provide great usability/accessibility and your agency loses creditability online.
You miss the opportunity to help millions of citizens by not influencing their decisions and lifestyles for the better.

What you will learn:

Techniques to manage the flood of data your organization is providing online
How critical it is to listen to and engage your audiences in order to meeting the demands of the public.
Key persuasive design techniques and how you can put them to use today

About John Whalen:
John Whalen has a PhD in Cognitive Science with 10 years of User-Centered Design experience. John’s specialty is improving user experience using a mix of one part in-depth user study, one part business needs, and one part use of expert knowledge of human vision, visual attention, memory and language. John has experience working with Fortune 500 clients in the financial, healthcare, eCommerce and government verticals. John's latest research interests are how social networking is influencing online activities, the extent to which persuasive design will impact user behavior, and measuring the user experience using eye tracking and neuro-marketing techniques.