Openads is one of the most interesting open-source projects/companies on the planet. Period. It's an open-source ad server. Like DoubleClick without the lock-in or fees. In other words, it's open source--100 percent GPLv2. I guess it should be no surprise that the world's most popular ad server, powering Web 2.0 business models, is open source, just as the LAMP stack is the technological basis for Web 2.0 sites/services.
I've been following Openads since May, when my friend Bryce Roberts indicated that he was considering investing in the company. (And so he/O'Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures did, along with Index Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partner and First Capital in a $5 million Series A round of funding, as Tim O'Reilly reports.)
I caught up today with Scott Switzer, Openads' founder and CTO, to learn more about the company and what it does. Unlike most open-source start-ups, Openads isn't focused on enterprise software. It provides an ad server. This sounds great, but what does it mean? And why does open source matter in this market? That's what I asked Scott.
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