Last December, Cory Bergman and his wife, Kate, noticed that their tightly-knit neighborhood didn't have a daily news source. So they started one - a blog called MyBallard.

Cory and Kate Bergman, who run the popular MyBallard blog and just gave birth to their baby, Kai, revealed their identities to readers Monday. "Unlike traditional news sites," said Bergman, "our readers power the blog." (Photo by Inglin Photography)

Patrick Sand and Tracy Record of West Seattle Blog accept a 2008 Citizen Appreciation Award from Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske and Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen. For Record, blogging is more than a hobby, or even a job. "It's a calling."

The Bergmans are hardly the first to take community news coverage into their own hands. Joining the ranks of West Seattle Blog, Capitol Hill Seattle and Rainier Valley Post, among others, they're just one example of dedicated Seattle citizens - many of them former or current journalists - who are finding a void and filling it.

Seattle's tech savvy and strong neighborhood identity make it a fertile breeding ground for neighborhood news sites, which already are shaping up to claim a big stake in the future of journalism.

But there are a lot of questions. How will these independent blogs interact with city media and their communities? How hard do their authors have to work? And are these blogs profitable?

You can hear the bloggers' own thoughts Thursday night at the Seattle Public Library. That's where Seattle City Club will host a panel discussion on the subject - "Neighborhood Blogs: What's All the Buzz About?"

Cory Bergman will be on that panel, as will Tracy Record of the West Seattle Blog, Scott Schaefer of the B-Town (Burien) Blog, Amber Campbell of the Rainier Valley Post and Heather McLeland-Wieser of the Seattle Public Library.

I'll be moderating. Admission is free. Here are the details:

Neighborhood Blogs: What's All the Buzz About?
Seattle Public Library, Central Branch - 1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle
Registration: 5:30 p.m.
• Program: 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
• Computer event - blogging: 7:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Free, but sign up in advance

From Ballard to Burien, from West Seattle to South Lake Union, and from Capitol Hill to Beacon Hill, the proliferation of neighborhood blogs all around Seattle is changing not just the local media landscape but also how community conversations are taking place in an increasingly digital world. How does the 24-7 nature of citizen-driven blogs impact "traditional" news sources and how people are informed? How do these interactive (and often anonymous) online discussions promote greater civic participation and sense of community? Who runs these blogs and are they profitable?

Join CityClub for light appetizers and refreshments as we hear from some of Seattle's most active neighborhood bloggers and experts about what it takes to start a blog, some of the hot button neighborhood issues generating the most debate on blogs today and ways to participate in the blogosphere. Stay after to blog with the experts in a library computer lab. Bring your questions for what promises to be an enlightening CityClub event!

Thanks to our:

Event Chairs: Nathan Hambley and Lora Lee

Co-presenting organizations:The B-Town Blog, Central District News, Greenwood Blog, Leadership Eastside, Leadership Tomorrow, Seattle Works, West Seattle Blog, YMCA of Greater Seattle and YWCA of Seattle/King/Snohomish County. Presented in Partnership with Seattle Public Library.

P.S. - the P-I hosts its own array of neighborhood and other niche blogs. For more on that and how you can blog for us, click here.