HPANA

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HPANA
Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator
URL	http://www.hpana.com
Type of site	Harry Potter fan site
Owner	Jeff Guillaume
Created by	Jeff Guillaume
Launched	October 2002

The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator, or HPANA as it is better known, is a Harry Potter fansite created in 2002 to monitor news on the Internet about J. K. Rowling's series of novels about the eponymous wizard. It was one of the first such sites to aggressively promote the use of RSS, a technology that automatically notifies readers of updates and allows content to be distributed and accessed in a variety of ways.

1 History
2 Awards
3 External links
4 Press
5 References

[edit] History

While the site originally aggregated news articles from various online sources, it has become a source itself through which moviemaker Warner Bros., publisher Scholastic, Inc., videogame company Electronic Arts and other companies provide updates, pictures and videos about their respective Harry Potter properties. The site's representatives, for instance, have been invited to several of the films' red carpet premieres around the world.^[1] In 2006, the site's creator visited Leavesden Film Studios, the permanent set outside London on which the movies are filmed.^[2]^[3] The site was invited in 2007 to an exclusive webcast during which the studio, along with Universal Orlando Resort, revealed their intentions to build the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, which will open by 2010.^[4] Beyond its core mission of providing news, the site features an active forum community numbering in the tens of thousands.

HP Fan Trips aboard the "Hogwarts Express"

The site began working with a travel company in 2003 to offer tours of the United Kingdom with a Harry Potter focus, dubbed HP Fan Trips. Over 100 people joined its initial trip in 2004, and more than 200 in 2005, 2006 and 2007. A staple of these trips is a ride on steam locomotive #5972 Olton Hall, the train used in the Harry Potter films as the Hogwarts Express. The group has been mentioned in the New York Times,^[5] Frommers,^[6] Fodor's^[7], The Scotsman^[8] and other international media.^[9]

In July 2005, HPANA and MuggleNet along with publisher Wizarding World Press held Spellbound! 2005, an event to celebrate the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Mt. Prospect, Illinois.^[10] More than 10,000 people attended the free event, played games and watched live stage performances while they waited for the midnight book debut.

HPANA is operated by a volunteer staff of adults and teenagers who monitor and post news items, attend events in order to cover them for the site, and moderate the forums. It is donation and advertiser supported and runs on three physical servers in a Michigan datacenter.

[edit] Awards

Rowling, upon giving HPANA her "Fan Site Award" in December 2004, said it was the first Harry Potter fan site she ever visited.^[11] "A fantastically user-friendly fansite," Rowling remarked, "faster off the mark with Harry Potter news than any other site I know, and with all kinds of brilliantly inventive touches."

HPANA was featured on USA Today's "Hot Sites" list on November 2, 2004.

Movies.com honored HPANA with a "Fan Favorite Site" award on June 9, 2004.^[12]