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We are very excited to be hosting the first ever ping pong tournament at ad:tech: The OpenX Open! Ping Pong has been a core part of our culture at OpenX since the beginning and we think this event will be a great opportunity to share and have some fun. It’s a doubles tournament and a number of companies have already entered their teams with hopes of taking the championship. There is room for 32 teams to compete, but the spots are going fast. You can sign up at our booth on Wednesday November 5th at Content Revenue Strategies at ad:tech or email me now at theopenxopen@openx.org and I can save your team a spot.

At 8:00 pm after the tournament, we will be hosting party at SPiN (www.spinnyc.com), the hottest ping pong club and bar in New York. We will be having some cocktails, hosting a singles ping pong tournament, and having a groovy time.

For more information on the tournament and the party, please visit The OpenX Open event page on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158855197890

And, while you’re there, please be sure to become a fan of OpenX on our main Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=openx&init=quick#/OpenX?ref=search&sid=729872722.1573061105..1

Game on!

Last week, we announced the upgrade of OpenX Hosted to OpenX 2.8.2, an improved version of OpenX Ad Server that features better performing ad delivery, security updates and various other enhancements (please see the blog post for more details). Now, we’ve made this version available for download, so you can host this version of the Ad Server yourself.

We’d also like to remind you of our preferred web host, DreamHost, which we recommend using to host OpenX 2.8.2. Sign up here and be sure to use the promo code “OpenX” to get $20 off your first year.

So check out OpenX 2.8.2 to take advantage of the new enhancements. And for more information, check out the release notes here. Let us know what you think by sending us your feedback on the release.

This week we will introduce OpenX 2.8.2, the latest version of the OpenX Ad Server. We will first launch the new version on OpenX Hosted on Tuesday (update: see 2.8.2 upgrade schedule).  We’ll then make it available for download a few days after. It will include a number of improvements to the delivery of contract campaigns, as well as various security updates and bug fixes. You can expect the following enhancements with the new OpenX 2.8.2 release.

• Improvements to ad delivery - With OpenX 2.8.2, we have made a number of changes to the delivery engine to ensure the proper allocation of ads across contract campaigns. The resulting improvements will reduce the occurrence of under-delivery and over-delivery for all contract campaigns.
• Improvements to campaigns using companion positioning - Prior to OpenX 2.8.2, once a “companion” campaign served one ad on a page, it prevented any other campaigns from serving ads on the page, regardless of whether the companion campaign could fill all of the page’s ads itself. In OpenX 2.8.2, we’ve fixed this behavior, so if there are ads on the page that the companion campaign is unable to serve, they will be offered to other campaigns (helping you avoid serving blanks).
• Security updates - We have completed a number of critical security updates to the ad server in OpenX 2.8.2 to reduce any potential vulnerabilities in the software.

In addition to these enhancements, we’ve made numerous additional performance improvements and bug fixes. Be sure to check out the release notes when they’re made available on Thursday.

If you are using OpenX Hosted, there’s more. In addition to upgrading the OpenX Hosted platform to OpenX 2.8.2 on Tuesday, we will be making further improvements throughout the next two weeks to significantly improve your experience on OpenX Hosted (update: see Market Plugin upgrade schedule).

• OpenX Market UI updates - This week, we’ll be updating how OpenX Hosted integrates with OpenX Market. You will be able to use tools like the OpenX Market Quickstart page and the Ad Quality Tool, which we previously launched for downloaded users (see this blog post). You will also be able to view details like your payment history.
• New and improved ad prioritization - Next week, we will be going live with a new process for prioritizing campaigns in OpenX Hosted. We’ve spent a number of months rewriting this process and have already rolled it out to some OpenX Enterprise Hosted clients with great success. With the new process in place, campaigns will deliver more accurately, the admin UI will be faster, and the system will prioritize contract campaigns in near real-time.
• New and improved reporting infrastructure - There will also be a number of updates to the way statistics are processed, making OpenX Hosted more in line with IAB requirements (we are in the final stages of certifying our Hosted platforms as IAB compliant). These changes will set the stage for further performance improvements to all statistics screens down the line.

We’re confident these updates will significantly improve performance and usability for all of you. Be sure to watch for them this coming week and as always we’ll be looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Based on the enthusiastic response of OpenX publishers to its recent search engine optimization webinar, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is making a new offer to our publishers. The IAB is opening up its next four Long Tail Alliance webinars to OpenX publishers for free.

Here are the upcoming webinar dates and topics:

October 2 - Ad Networks presented by ValueClick Media

October 9 - Social Media for Success: Driving Traffic, Engagement, and Response from Leading Social Sites

October 16 - Email Marketing Best Practices: The Key To Targeted, Relevant Marketing

October 23 - Legal Affairs Best Practices for Small Publishers

The webinars will all be held on Fridays from 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm (Eastern). To take part in any of these events, please visit www.iab.net/longtail_webinars. Although there is no charge for you to attend, you do need to register in advance.

Stay tuned for even more great offers from OpenX and the IAB soon… In the meantime, enjoy the webinars!

We’d like to inform you of a special offer that the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is making to OpenX publishers. The IAB regularly arranges educational webinars for members of their Long Tail Alliance members on topics relevant to medium and small publishers. They’ve opened up their next webinar - Search Engine Optimization - to OpenX publishers for free.

The webinar will be presented by Google search evangelist Adam Lasnik and is designed to help you make your site’s content more accessible for users and Google, and also gain insight into their comprehensive resources for webmasters. The webinar will be held on September 11th from 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm Eastern Time.

To take part in this, please visit www.iab.net/longtail_webinars. Although there is no charge for you to attend, you do need to register in advance.

Enjoy the webinar and be on the lookout for more great offers from OpenX and the IAB soon!

Are you a Facebook App developer? Starting today, you can manage the ads within your Facebook Apps with OpenX Hosted. Now, when you get the ad tag for a zone (on the zone’s Invocation Code tab), you will see a new type of invocation called “Facebook App Tag”. If you select this tag type, you will be given the tags necessary to make your ads appear in your Facebook Apps.

You can also target your Facebook App ads according to Age Group, Educational Attainment, Gender, and Relationship Status. All you need to do is go to your banner’s Delivery Options tab, select the desired demographic targeting criteria, and then choose which values you wish to target.

Of course, you’ll be able to use OpenX Hosted to manage the campaigns and reports for your Facebook App ads just like you would for any other type of ad. For more info on managing your Facebook App ads, click here.