To say that Burnsville-based
DigitalTown has school spirit is an understatement.
The enterprise, founded in 1982, purchased its first web domain in 2005, when the founder, Richard Pomije, was chatting with Kay Joyce, then the principal of Burnsville High School. They talked about how effective it would be to have a site outside the school's official website that connected parents, students, and other community members.
Pomije bought
www.burnsvilleblaze.com, and then went on a buying spree. The company now owns about 20,000 "school spirit" sites, and CEO Robert Castle notes that they have big plans.
"We want to build a powerful, nationwide publishing tool," he says. "We're ready to take this to the next level."
The sites only have local sports scores right now, but Castle envisions community-provided content as well as advertising that will give half the revenue back to the schools. The advantage of a school spirit site, he notes, is that schools don't have to manage them, or deal with liability issues that might crop up.
DigitalTown has 10 full- or part-time employees, but Castle sees the potential for rapid growth, which would also include hiring. "We've done the hard work in building the sites, and now we're at the point where we'll add the content to get it the rest of the way," he says.
Source: Robert Castle, DigitalTown
Writer: Elizabeth Millard