Ever wondered what happens day to day in the exciting world of hyperlocal journalism? The couple behind Next Door Media — Kate and Cory Bergman — are profiled in this Seattle Channel piece that focuses on the company’s flagship site, My Ballard. (Queen Anne View is a Next Door Media site.) It’ll air tonight on TV (channel 21), but you can preview it here.

Added bonus: We got to see Silver, one of our tipsters. Thanks for all you do, Silver!

This story was re-posted from our sister site, My Ballard, because the sunrise was just too beautiful to pass up.

This morning’s sunrise was spectacular. In case you missed it, Steven Thompson sent us this photo.

And since today is Groundhog Day, we thought we’d share that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow (video here), predicting an early spring.

Mayoral candidates Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan were asked a question from our neighboring community, Ballard, tonight during the televised debate put on by KING 5 and the Seattle Times. Our sister site, My Ballard, was asked to do the honors, providing three questions from community members to producers, one of which made it on camera this evening.

The chosen question: “There have been a number of bicycle accidents along the unfinished portion of the Burke-Gilman trail, commonly referred to as the ‘Missing Link.’ How do you propose to address safety along this stretch?”

Check out My Ballard’s coverage to find out how McGinn and Mallahan responded.

Our sister site, My Ballard, has been asked to provide questions for the mayoral candidate debate hosted by the Seattle Times and KING 5 later this month. And as the Next Door Media blogs are all powered by the communities they serve, My Ballard is going to select a few questions submitted by readers to ask the candidates. If you have a question you’re just dying to ask, post a comment here, or email them to tips@queenanneview.com and we’ll pass them along. They’re taping the questions tomorrow, Tuesday, October 13 at 11 a.m., so if you have any you’d like to add to the pool, send ‘em in asap!

We’re very proud to announce that our sister site, My Ballard, has just won the very first Community Collaboration award at the 2009 Online Journalism Awards last night, beating out fellow nominees the Los Angeles Times and Miami Herald. This award is equivalent to an Emmy Award in television!!

OJA Committee Co-Chair Anthony Moore said, “We continue to be impressed by the way journalists are pushing the envelope and serving the public interest at the same time.”

Judges commented about the site:

My Ballard is exactly what newspapers are trying to do with hyperlocal content.  And these guys do it.  There was no site that fulfills the sense of community collaboration better.  It’s the literal definition of the category.  It’s extremely useful for the neighborhood and because it lists cool places to go, it works for others.

Congratulations to the Geeky Swedes, Cory and Kate! Read what they have to say about their win here.

A new local start-up, Flash Volunteer, is on a quest to connect “Seattle-area residents to volunteer opportunities, volunteers to neighborhoods, and nonprofits to volunteers,” through a web-based social networking tool.

Founder and Executive Director Brad Wilke said the project is “focused on increasing volunteerism here in Seattle.”‘

Interested? Here’s how it works: Volunteers register with the site based on the neighborhood they live and/or work in, then Flash Volunteer “pushes” relevant opportunities to the participant’s personal homepage – providing what Brad describes as “a personal volunteer management tool with a hyperlocal focus that promotes sustained user involvement in their community.”

Brad writes,

We provide online management tools for neighborhood-focused volunteer opportunities, empowering Seattleites to participate more fully in regular, sustainable volunteer service. We are an all-volunteer organization that has bootstrapped the site to the point where it is now…

Upon signing up for an event, Flash Volunteer creates a social network for participants, allowing them to interact with the event manager and connect with other participants. Following the event, participants are able to post pictures and add other volunteers to their “Flash Team”, encouraging participation at future events and helping create stronger off-line communities, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Flash Volunteer is a low-cost, high-impact platform for community engagement that is currently building a model for cities around the country to replicate and expand upon. Eventually, we hope to provide each citizen the tools they need to build stronger neighborhoods and improve their quality of life through regular community service.

Brad also said that the organization, although just getting started, has big plans and will be using new media technology as a launching pad. In September Flash Volunteer will be releasing an iPhone application, “which will provide a real-time snapshot of volunteer opportunities based on the user’s GPS location, allowing for drop-in attendance at events like park clean-ups and other group activities,” he said.

I went to the Queen Anne page and so far there are five registered volunteers, myself included. Our sister site, My Ballard, has reported that volunteers are beginning to join on their page as well. Given the rise in community-based organizations that provide hyperlocal services, this site might just take off.

Our sister site, My Ballard (and Next Door Media) has been nominated for an Online Journalism Award in the “community collaboration” category. Proof that neighborhood sites are powered by the communities they serve!