[QUOTE=Spoons]
I will say that I’ve been quite impressed with the spoken wordcasts I’ve heard on the Internet recently though. Much improved over the way they used to be. I should look into more of that kind of thing.
[/QUOTE]
That’s what having high-speed internet in the majority of connections will do for us… 
My friend Mike and I are looking at Asterix, which is an open-source PBX that runs on Linux.
Basically you put this stuff on a cheap PC in everyone’s house, connect the PCs to the internet by high-speed, and instruct the PCs to link up with each other. Bam! Every PC becomes part of a distributed private phone exchange, and all the users, no matter how far apart they are, are just an extension call away, through the usual PC headset and microphone.
So far, this is not that different from a permanent conference room on Skype or Googletalk or the other voice chat systems… but it runs all the time on dedicated hardware, so it’s more reliable.
And you can add things.
You can connect the system to Skype-like communities that use open communications protocols. (Skype may have the numbers and the media buzz, but, sadly, is trying to remain a closed community with its own proprietary protocols. People are Working On this problem.)
You can add a card to plug a regular phone into the system. You can also add cards to connect one or more of the PCs to traditional phone lines.
The PBX handles incoming regular phone calls. You can send them to any extension anywhere on the system. And extension users can call out to the regular phone system.
With proper planning, you can end up with one phone that will seamlessly handle internet calling and regular phone calling. I have seen wireless phones that can connect to the system through any 802.11 access point (I’ve also seen one for use with Skype’s protocols). I’m waiting for one that is also a cellphone.
With proper planning, this thing could cut our phone bills trememdously.
