Earlier this week, I participated in one of Alec Saunders' Squawk Box podcasts, where he invites a bunch of techies to join in and hash out the topics of the day. It's recorded using iotum's Free Conference Calling application on Facebook and eventually put out on Alec Saunders blog. If you're interested in hearing the episode I'm on, it's the February 5th show.

What I found utterly amazing was the interface. I could see-live-who was on the call, whether or not they were muted, and whether or not they were still on the call (i.e. did they hang up). There was also a live "wall" that served as sort of a back channel for the call. It was, quite simply, the best conference calling experience I've ever had. You can't beat the price of free, either.

While I used Skype to dial into the call, you can see in the screenshot that they are planning to add the ability to join the call from within the browser. That will rock the house.