About
Founded in 2002, Jeff Kahn, operating as Verbena Consulting LLC, offers a range of interoperability strategy and solution services to software vendors, universities, and museums. Jeff works with emerging standards for interoperability in education, with particular focus on repositories. Jeff has more than 25 years experience in commercial and custom software design and implementation, technology professional services, training, strategic alliances, and business development. Jeff has provided strategy, system design, software development, and documentation services for a number of open source projects and has been an invited technical speaker at a variety of industry events.
Verbena Consulting LLCpartners with other consultants on select engagements to bring additional skills to bear in addressing clients needs.
Verbena Consulting LLC is a member of the Blackboard Developer Network.
Jeff Kahn is a named Sakai integration consultant.
Jeff Kahn is a consultant to the IMS Global Learning Consortium on Common Cartridge.
Jeff Kahn is a named Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) Integragration Partner.
Verbena Consulting LLC is suitably insured to bid on a variety of projects.
What Clients and Colleagues Say About Verbena Consulting LLC
"Verbena Consulting LLC has been instrumental in the development of software solutions and strategies for the discovery and delivery of our digital content for the academic markets. And as demand increases for information that is interoperable and accessible, Verbena will continue to play a key role in our business planning and implementation process."
- Cameron Cox
Vice President, Marketing and Member Services
INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications
"Jeff Kahn does excellent work – delivers software, documentation and other ancillary materials of excellent quality on time (or before). Beyond the deliverables for any engagement, Jeff delivers understanding – he has a genuine interest in all things educational, and is an educator himself. Beginning with a natural gift for explaining things, he always comes prepared with a wealth of illustrative material and a great sense for what will get the point across."
- Tom Speyer
Director, Enabling Technologies
John Wiley & Sons
"Jeff's commitment to the success of our mutual clients and partners through the development of open, standards-based integrations on top of Blackboard's open API framework ensures that teaching and learning tools can more easily reach the hands of end-users in a timely and maintainable manner."
- George Kroner
Developer Relations Engineer
Blackboard
"Jeff's technical expertise in system interoperability is unmatched in the educational sector and his work has helped push forward the global industry in a shared vision of how interoperable services get done. Even more considerable are his skills in exposition: where he never fails to break down complex ideas into real world scenarios that can be understood by any manager or executive. His combination of technical knowledge, network of relationships, and understanding of real-world applicability make him an ideal consultant to any educationally-based project."
- David Flanders
Programme Manager, Digital Libraries and eLearning
JISC
"Jeff possesses a vast experience and understanding of educational technology systems. His expertise and insight into both technical and business strategy issues has been invaluable to SoftChalk. We have especially appreciated his ability to strategize, prototype, and assist us in rapidly progressing from concept to effect."
- Susan Evans
CEO
SoftChalk LLC
"Jeff is a wonderful person to work with: thoughtful, considerate and team-oriented. At the same time, he brings the deep technical knowledge and skills necessary for the success of any project."
- Mark J. Norton
Nolaria Consulting
"Jeff has the rare combination of skills that enable him to apply complex technical concepts to client problems in a way that immediately demonstrates value. He is a great collaborator who helps rapidly bring focus and clarity to design issues, through a practical example based approach. He easily transitions between business and technical perspectives and is excellent at understanding and articulating both. Jeff was invaluable in evolving and applying the ideas of O.K.I."
- Scott Thorne
Enterprise Systems Architect
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
References
Higher Education IT Managment
· M. S. Vijay Kumar Ed. D., Senior Associate Dean & Director, DUE Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (vkumar@mit.edu)
· Jeff Merriman, Associate Director, Software Strategy and Development, Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (merriman@mit.edu)
· Gerry Hanley, Executive Director, MERLOT, Senior Director, Academic Technology Services, Information Technology Services and Academic Affairs, California State University, Office of the Chancellor (ghanley@calstate.edu)
· David J. Kahle, Vice President for Information Technology & CIO, Tufts University (david.kahle@tufts.edu)
Higher Education, Library, and Museum Content
· Michael Spalti, Associate University Librarian for Systems, Willamette University (mspalti@gmail.com)
· Peter Samis, Associate Curator, Interpretation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (psamis@sfmoma.org)
· Marvin Pollard, Project Manager, Unified Information Access System, Office of the Chancellor, California State University (mpollard@calstate.edu)
· Kim Smith, Vice President, Education, PBS (kasmith@pbs.org)
Architecure
· Charles Severance, University of Michigan, Former Chief Architect for the Sakai Project (csev@umich.edu)
· Stuart Sim, CTO of CommonNeed and former Chief Architect of the Education Business Solutions Group at Sun Microsystems (stuart@commonneed.com)
· Scott Thorne, Enterprise Software & Data Architect, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (thorne@mit.edu)
Funders / Foundations
· David Flanders, Programme Manager, Digital Libraries and eLearning, JISC (d.flanders@jisc.ac.uk)
· Ira Fuchs, Vice President for Research in Information Technology, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (IHF@mellon.org)
Learning Management Systems
· Jan Posten Day, Senior Directory, Client Engagement, Blackboard (jan.day@blackboard.com)
· George Kroner, Developer Relations Engineer, Blackbaord (George.Kroner@blackboard.com)
· Ed Walker, former CEO of IMS Global Learning Consortium (edw@ectwalker.com)
· Mark Norton, Information Architect Kuali Project, Sakai Educational Partners Program (markjnorton@earthlink.net)
Commercial Software
· Sue Evans, CEO, SoftChalk LLC (spolyson@softchalk.com)
· Scott Morris, Segment Manager, Education Marketing, Apple (smorris@apple.com).
· Fabrizio Cardinali, CEO Giunti Labs (f.cardinali@giuntilabs.com)
Commercial Content
· Tom Speyer, Director Enabling Technologies, John Wiley and Sons (tspeyer@wiley.com)
· Cameron Cox, Vice President Marketing and Member Services, INTELECOM Online Resources Network (ccox@intelecom.org)
· Dave Dusthimer, Associate Publisher, Cisco Press and Certification, Pearson Technology Group (David.Dusthimer@pearson.com)
· Bryce Sady, former Senior Manager, Technology Initiatives, Cengage Learning (brycesady@gmail.com)