The Skypecasts conference calling service allows online communities to schedule calls that anyone around the world can join.The service is currently being tested by select Skype partners but a beta version for the general public will be launched soon.

The Skypecasts Web site lists scheduled calls and in-progress calls. Hosting and calling into a Skypecast is free for registered Skype users. The host can mute and enable participants to speak and also eject callers.

Six Apart, the developer of blogging software and a pilot user, is promoting Skypecasts as part of the offering, Skype said. The idea is for bloggers to schedule Skypecasts or promote other scheduled Skypecasts and invite visitors to their blogs to participate in the calls. Any blog or Web site that supports HTML snippets will be able to include a link to a Skypecast, allowing visitors to join the call without leaving the blog site.

Bloggers may be particularly interested in using Skypecasts as a way to add a live audio conversation component to their blogs. People who run blogs will be able to control and manage Skypecasts in the same way that they control and manage their blogs, he added.

Skypecast conference calling is expected to appeal more to social communities than to business groups because they're open to anyone. Skype already offers a conference call feature, which is more attractive to business users.