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Making Progress Toward Revolution
Work on the expansion of the new Daily Prophet is making great progress, thanks to our wonderful programmer, Simon Carstensen of Denmark, and the many devoted fans who have donated their time, money, and support. Simon, an award-winning programmer with years of professional experience in many international ventures, is working diligently with our President, Meg McGonagall, to create an automated publishing system that will allow each and every one of you to participate in The Daily Prophet. Our plan is so revolutionary it has already been recognized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and it's not even finished yet! An entire chapter of Dr. Henry Jenkins' latest college textbook, 'Convergence Culture' is dedicated to The Daily Prophet and its various endeavors. But what's the best part? This revolution is all about you. You can be our next columnist, and soon you can be the Editor of your very own Harry Potter newspaper! It's fan fiction to the N-th degree - no longer will you have to bother with creating your own website, trying to find readers, trying to keep things updated the old-fashioned way; the new Daily Prophet will do all that for you. But we're going to need your help to get there.
There are many ways you can help, and even the youngest of our readers can participate. First and foremost, we need your help to spread the word. Let's make this the biggest grassroots campaign in the history of Harry Potter fandom! In 2001, The Daily Prophet and its fellow Potter fans were responsible for making huge waves on the international stage and setting legal precedents that protect all fans to this day through the infamous PotterWar campaign. We can do this again, but for an even greater cause - literacy. Tell your friends, organize clubs and get yourselves ready to open your own fan fiction newspapers. Better yet, tell your teachers at school that soon, they too can open class newspapers online so that schools can get in on the action. Your efforts now will make your school day a little more magical by the end of summer. Spread the word, spread the magic!
We're doing more with this expansion than just providing you with an online publishing system. We'll be providing you with a database of literally thousands of beautiful works of art to help inspire you as you write your fan fiction. This database will be the first of its kind, hosting steel-plate engravings from the 17th and 18th century. This disappearing art form is reminiscent of fairy tales, fantasy, and old world mysticism - in other words, it's perfect for all realms of fantasy fiction. And it will be made available to you, entirely free, to include with the publication of your newspaper. How can you help? If you have any antique books lying around that have old engravings, if you happen to find any while you're out shopping, we would appreciate it if you could donate them to the archive. If you mail them to our headquarters in Virginia, we'll scan all the engravings in the book and put them online for everyone to enjoy. There's no other online archive like this on the planet; put your own stamp on it by submitting artwork today. As always, all donations are tax deductible, which will make your parents/guardians very happy. And you'll be proud to see your name in the list of contributors to this one of a kind project.
How else can you help? We're always looking for web hosting, so if you or anyone you know has access to a web server, we'd love to hear about it. We're looking for web space in the multiple gigabyte range with a healthy supply of bandwidth. Again, tax deductible and we'll list you as a web space supplier on the website for all the world to see.
And last, but certainly not least, cash donations are always welcome. They'll go directly to expediting the programming of the expansion, its continued operation, the procurement of additional engravings for the archive, and increased security measures to make sure the world we create here will always be safe and fun for you.
This will be a collaborate project to benefit the entire Harry Potter community. We still have a few secrets and surprises up our sleeve - including an all new section in addition to Harry Potter and the promised Lord of the Rings section. Let's just say fans of the 'V.F.D' will be very, very pleased. We're going to make waves and we want you to be a part of it.
Thanks for all of your continued support and patience. This is an incredibly large and substantial undertaking, over four years in the making. This year, you'll see what all the work has been for, and we know you'll love it.
Celebrate By Giving!
Now that we're official and tax-exempt, we at the Daily Prophet believe it is time to celebrate! While we're hard at work building the grand expansion of the website, we've decided we should start an international online giving party. That is why we are pleased and proud to announce the first annual Daily Prophet Literacy Quest Book-Drive! Every year we'll collect used books from our readers and send them on a mission around the world to people who need them most.
We're going to kick off the campaign by donating all of the used books we collect to the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our Webmistress, Meg McGonagall (aka Heather Lawver), has been in contact with several units in both countries, and the need is great. Many of these soldiers are not allowed to leave their posts during free time, so they are stuck on base with nothing to do. It's hard on their morale, they have no way to just relax and have fun. We want to give them keys to other worlds, by opening up books and diving into pages. Additionally, according to Laubach Literacy Action, 27% of Army Enlistees cannot read at the 7th grade level. These brave men and women need our help, now more than ever! And using the power of the internet, we can make this happen.
There are so many ways you can help. You can make a difference today! Organize your friends, your teachers, your schools, and start a collection drive in your neighborhood. Gather up all those books that are just collecting dust - and be sure to get your parents' permission - then mail them to us. If you need help paying to ship the books to us, ask your friends for fifty cents along with whatever books they donate, then ask your post office to mail them at the "Media Mail" rate. You can ship five pounds of books for only around $3.50! Mail them to us today at:
The Daily Prophet
PO Box 3114
Sterling, VA 20167-3114
What do you do if you don't have any books to donate? Then simply grab a piece of paper, a pen (or even a crayon if necessary), and write a letter to a soldier. Tell them how much they mean to you personally, what it is that you love about your country, and why you've decided to help honor the troops. Send those letters along, and they'll be included with the care packages.
Every book helps! We'll post updates in the future of how many books we've collected, pictures of the troops receiving their care packages, and more. Please, help make the first annual Daily Prophet Literacy Quest Book-Drive an absolute success. Let's show the world what we Harry Potter fans are made of.
Check out the official headquarters for the Literacy Quest Book Drive for more info!
Volunteer with The Daily Prophet!
Are you a web god or goddess? Are you proficient in PHP and MySQL? Are you friendly, loyal,
and eager to help out with a worthy cause? Then you're perfect for the Daily Prophet's
exciting new project! We're looking to create a small volunteer staff to create our latest
web charity project and we can't do it without you. If you're interested, please send an
email to our President, Meg McGonagall, and tell her all about the other projects you've
worked on and what kind of experience you have. This would be a great opportunity for you
to not only boost your resume, or improve your college applications, but also to feel the
warm fuzzies that come from helping others all around the world.
Send in your application today and you could become a part of educational history.
The Daily Prophet Receives Applause from
MIT Technology Review Online
Henry Jenkins, founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media
Studies Program, has written an amazing article about the educational benefits
of the Daily Prophet, other similar programs, and writing fan fiction.
The article, "Why Heather CAN Write", named after The Daily Prophet's President
Heather Lawver, is an amazing and insightful look at how popular media -
such as the Harry Potter books - is starting an educational revolution where
children are taking over the reins of their own educational efforts.
Click
here to read the article! |
Metro 
