It seems every year there is a trend that pops up that I didn't realized was "hip" until I read it in someone else's blog. Ajax was one of those trends, a 5-6 year old technology that just blew up overnight and became a phenomenon. I knew it was cool, but we'd been doing remote javascript applications for years, so it was a little hard to understand the enthusiasm (I later got it).

Well, I don't think callcasting, as it's being coined, is a revolution, but it is definitely a podcasting evolution. One of the trends that is most definitely associated with leading Web 2.0 content producers is the fact that most thought leaders are starting to, or have been for a while, underproducing their content compared to traditional media. Want an example? Here is a Sun Microsystems podcast called Sun News Today (Tokyo Institute of Technology). It's got great theme music, a well cut voiceover, and is highly produced.

If you look at Apple itunes, it's definitely the case that highly produced podcast and broadcast programs remain the most highly rated applications out there. However, podcasts like Chris Pirillo (who runs live vide), Lullabot, Ask A Ninja, Diggnation, and many others take a far less formal tone, and they are extremely popular. Of this group, Lullabot does most of their podcasts on Skype, and it's basically a conversation - you are listening to a meeting with questions. Compare their podcast to the Sun example above, and you'll get the idea. Even their stuff is produced compared to much of the content being produced by leading thinkers, who seem to be obsessed more with volume and content than presentation and professional presentation.

The new trend seems to go even further down the food chain to something called "callcasting." CallCasting is simply a call that you make to someone (maybe you know them, maybe you don't - that might be the purpose of the call). You don't do it secretly - you do it out in the open, and you have a conversation about what interests you, to whatever degree you want to structure it. I listened to Mr. Croft's interview with Jeff Brown here, which was inspired by Jeff's conversation with Kevin here.

I think this might be a trend, and here's why:

Call recorder is a ~$15.00 utility that plugs right into skype, and can be set up to automatically record calls. Combine it with a handset (there are tons available), and you can easily record every call that gets put into Skype, and any outbound call you make in your office, provided you use the skype phone through your computer.

That's pretty easy. And the kind of one-on-one dialogues that developers have with one another can be some of the most intense, interesting, and enlightening dialogue you'll hear in the technology market. Being able to capture new relationships and share them with the world (both HUGE Web 2.0 trends) is definitely inline with this early market trend.

While journalists gripe about the death of quality content, Web innovators are looking for new ways to unlock social relationships to create value.

Where do you suppose callcasting fits in, and how long until we have our first callcasting directory (the first podcast directories were up in just the first few months)?