I just came across SharedTalk.com by Rosetta Stone.
I am not exactly what it is all about, but it seems cool. I haven't created an account yet, but I will.
Rosetta Stone makes commercial language-learning software for many languages. It seems to me that this is a site that will be free for people to use as in interface to meet and talk/IM with people, and that they have built some neat online tools for doing this.
Not sure to what degree they will be pushing for people to buy their products, though!