Have phone, will podcast

Turns out a microphone isn't required to create podcasts.  Services like GCast.com let you literally phone it in.  Here's GCast's idea:

Start a phone-based audio journal of your life. Record your new baby's voice. Podcast jokes, tips, deep thoughts, or whatever. Record a "voice intro" before a song. If you're a musician, leave phone messages for your fans to share stories from the road or new lyrics from the studio. Your imagination is the limit!

Subtext: whatever the use, keep it brief.  It's hard to tolerate telephone audio for very long, and I can't really imagine subscribing to a phoned-in podcast, but there are some applications I can imagine.  Specifically, I think there is a Web 2.0 opportunity within the concept of Placecasting that hasn't been explored.

As we've learned in the radio business, "phone tape" is good for short and/or time-sensitive nuggets of information.  Urgency excuses poor quality.  Brevity conceals it.  And in brevity, there is freedom and accessibility.

What if you're sitting in a notable public place...say people-watching in Union Square , New York, or outside the Louvre in Paris ...and you're curious to hear what other people sitting in the very same spot had experienced in days or weeks before.  Using your mobile Web device and it's locational tools, you find a geo-tagged podcast of short commentaries recorded "on the spot" by people there before you.  One caller describes the mime performing for school children last fall.  Another describes how people scattered when rain started to fall in March.  Maybe another describes the sandwich she bought from the vendor nearby last week.

Now it's your turn to contribute.  Dial the toll-free number.  Enter the code specific to this location.  Tell your short story.  No more than a minute, say, so there's no pressure to be comprehensive.  Brevity.  Hang up and let the technology do the rest.  The next person to sit on your bench with their device, a measure of curiosity and a few minutes to spare, will hear your story.

It's micro-prose, all based in place...people sharing a common space but across an expanse of time and experience.