I’ve been invited to present at the first ever WordCamp event in The Netherlands, on October 31 at Seats2Meet in Utrecht.

I will be presenting a very practical use case of the integration of WordPress and OpenX. OpenX is an ad server. More information about OpenX can be found on my blog. OpenX is free open source software, just like WordPress, and can be downloaded from www.openx.org.

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OpenX is an ad server, a system used for online and simple management of advertising space. It is free open source software. Because it is very powerful and has a lot of features, in some cases it can be a real plus to hire a consultant.

In recent weeks I had a number of questions from people asking me what ‘OpenX‘ is. Clients that I help with their OpenX system and implementation know the answer, of course, but since I write about it on my weblog all the time, others have noticed the term too. A valid question, and below is a short introduction about OpenX, how it can be used and what my work around OpenX involves.

Short introduction of the OpenX Ad Server

OpenX Ad Server is an ad server, created and published by the British-American company OpenX.org. It is a system that can be used to manage and optimize the advertising space on one or more websites. It is a tool for web site owners (called ‘publishers’ in the online advertising industry).

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OpenX closes $10 million Series C Funding

On Tuesday, May 26, 2009, OpenX announced that it closed it’s third round of funding. This Series C funding of US$ 10 million brought the total sum invested in the company to almost US$ 31 million.

More information can be found in the company’s press release and blog. The news was also covered by technology news blog TechCrunch.

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OpenX: impressive growth, new software version

A press releases and a software upgrade from OpenX were published almost at the same time yesterday. Almost 1 year after joining OpenX as CEO, Tim Cadogan picked April fool’s day to make some very serious announcements.

The first story was a press release about the phenomenal growth in the usage of the OpenX Ad Server product and the accompanying OpenX Market. A few highlights:

• More than 8,000 publishers have opened accounts on OpenX Hosted, together serving about 5 billion ads per month.
• OpenX Ad Server has been downloaded and installed by more than 35,000 publishers, and together they serve a huge number of ads, estimated at 300 billion per month.
• OpenX.org Ltd is doing very well in the transition from being a developer of open source software into a commercial company offering software, services and monetization opportunities. In spite of the economic climate, revenues are increasing. Even more important in my opinion: the potential for OpenX Market is not just a concept anymore, because participating publishers can tell from their revenues that OpenX is also generating revenues.

Just a few hours later, a major new software release was announced on the OpenX company blog: OpenX Ad Server version 2.8 is now available to anyone. It has some exciting new features and benefits, including the new plugin framework, general availability of OpenX Market, and improvements in the user interface, scabability and performance. More about the new software in my earlier blog post.

For many people, OpenX is the ad server they use every day, perhaps without giving it a lot of thought. They might not realize that a community of people work on OpenX software daily, enhancing and improving it.

Scott Switzer is OpenX’s founder and community leader. Scott put together a team 6 years ago to make OpenX a world class ad server, and he continues to lead the OpenX community and get them involved in creating this unique online ad serving product.

Erik Geurts is a longtime member of the OpenX community, and his full time job is consulting for companies who need help with OpenX. The chances are high that you have read Erik’s posts on the forum or his blog!

Scott and Erik will be in Amsterdam for an afternoon of questions and answers, road map discussions, and feedback sessions. Please come and meet Scott and Erik in Amsterdam on Thursday, March 26. This is a perfect opportunity to share your stories about OpenX, ask the questions you had on your mind for a long time, and meet other OpenX users.

This free informal event will start at 3 PM and will last until approximately 7 PM. The location is Cafe De Jaren, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 20-22, 1012 CP Amsterdam.

A quick reminder of the practical details:

• Event: OpenX informal community session
• Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009
• Time: from 3 PM until 7 PM
• Location: Amsterdam, Café de Jaren, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 20-22

There is no registration, but you are free to post a comment below if you plan to join us. Also see the announcement on LinkedIn