We have just begun cataloguing on this page some publicly-posted and privately-forwarded testimonials regarding our products and services. If you are or have been a satisfied client of ours, either directly or by being a student or buying a book, and would like us to consider including a testimonial by you then please help us by sending us a link or a quote that you would be willing to have attributed to you.
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1. Consulting services
I talked with three vendors regarding who in the industry should be contacted for XSLT and XSL-FO consulting and in all three cases Ken Holman was the first and most highly recommended name they gave. He is well-respected in this small community of XSL experts. I was amazed at his ability to look at a complex layout and know the limitations and strengths of different rendering engines and write XSL in such a way that was standards compliant and worked very well in all rendering engines.
Zak Ali
Founder
eSided Business Solutions, LLC.
Ken Holman provided design consultation and data transformation services to Boeing for a significant period during development of the massive eMOD authoring and publishing system. His insight and skills immediately made him a valuable member of the team. He always viewed difficult requirements as a challenge and was clearly devoted to making a success out of any task he undertook.
Doug Alberg
Senior Manager
Advanced Authoring and Publishing System Development
The Boeing Company
Ken Holman taught XSLT/XSL-FO classes at The Foundation Center in October 2002. For our class, Ken demonstrated an exceptional command of the material he taught. He quickly adjusted his presentation to our level of experience.
He later authored XSL stylesheets that created survey forms individually populated with our data and created a (large) directory (publication). His professional manner kept the projects on schedule and on budget. Ken is an excellent code writer. I have gotten a lot of use of his stylesheets by adapting them to other projects.
Ken cares a great deal about his clients and he is certainly a pleasure to work with.
Kathye Giesler
Publishing Database Administrator
The Foundation Center
2. Instructor-led training
2.1. Linked-In
Ken delivered his "Practical Transformation Using XSLT and XPath" on-site for my Development staff to help us ramp-up on this invaluable technology. His clear expertise, thorough coursework, and superb training technique drew rave reviews from staff and left a meaningful impact on the organization. I highly recommend his class for anyone seeking to maximize their XSLT capabilities - his experience and capabilities as a trainer are simply unparalleled.
Matt Lavallee
MLSPIN,
Shrewsbury, MA
2.2. Postings
By Rob Stote, Whitehill Technologies, Inc:
By Simon St. Laurent, a well-respected XML Community member:
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Practical Transformation Using XSLT/XPath:
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Practical Formatting Using XSL-FO:
2.3. Blogs
By Eugene Eric Kim, Blue Oxen Associates
By Dr. Alex Brown
- "his XML technologies training is generally considered to be the best in the world"
- http://adjb.net/comments.php?y=07&m=12&entry=entry071209-141310
By Tim Bray
- "totally the guy to call if you need XML-related education"
- http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/12/11/OOXML
2.4. Correspondence
Your teaching in Oslo is becoming more and more important to me. I have realized the importance of your valuable lessons several times in the past year or so. Right now I really can share my (mostly from you) wisdom of XML with others.
Jarkko Moilanen
Documentation developer
DokuMentori Oy, Finland
I found the Crane Softwrights hands-on XSL-FO course that I took well worth the money. The exercises were carefully prepared and allowed me to focus my attention on each concept as it was introduced. The hands-on nature of this course is what makes the material stick and makes it possible to learn so much in such a short time. Ken knows the material inside and out and was always ready to explain things in whatever detail was required.
David Cramer
Senior Technical Writer
Motive, Inc.
2.5. History
Our schedule of past deliveries is testimony to the world-wide popularity of our lectures and hands-on training courses.
3. Electronically-published books
3.1. Published reviews
3.2. Postings
- http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/200401/msg00715.html
- http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/200211/msg00324.html
- http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/200101/msg00960.html
3.3. Other
Ken's book [Practical Universal Business Language Deployment] has been extremely useful in the implementation of UBL NDR 2.0 and UMCLVV [UBL Methodology for Code List and Value Validation] at the New Zealand Ministry of Education, where a generic Education data model takes the place of the UBL/CCTS data model. Groundbreaking concepts with practical implementations - highly recommended!
Juerg Tschumperlin
Data Management Solutions
New Zealand
4. Paper-published books
Note these paper snapshots are from older editions of the same content as the electronically-published books.
4.1. Published reviews
- http://www.programming-reviews.com/Definitive_XSLFO_0131403745.html
- http://www.javaranch.com/bunkhouse/XML.jsp#0131403745
4.2. Postings
5. Training videos
I like having it around so I can just pop it in when I get stumped and need to review specific portions.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/message/13199:
It has the charm of really being there [in a classroom]! And I LOVE the personal interaction (well, it's just one way, but it feels like you're speaking directly to me ... it's just a great interface).
Neil R. Bauman, CEO
InSight Cruises
http://www.InsightCruises.com
Ken really knows XSLT and presents the materials well. You are not just getting an overview, but a thorough knowledge of the language. I just completed a paid XSLT job for a client using techniques from this course. I highly recommend it.
As a total beginner with XSLT, I chose to follow this course based on the instructor reputation and his expertise as member of the specification group. Each concept is nicely introduced and then progressively deepened to end with some exercises and their solutions.
6. Volunteer work
It is rare to have a secretariat manager who is also an active participant in the standards development work of a committee and who runs his operations by using applications of the committee's standards.
Dr. James Mason,
Chairman,
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34
7. Newspaper articles
Behind the revolution, Ottawa Citizen, November 17, 2005 by Peter Hum.
SOFTWRIGHTS
LTD.
