Live Journal is integrating a white-label version of Gizmo in order to offer IM & Voice communications between Live Journal users. Presumably this will integrate the Gizmo contact list with the fairly sophisticated social networking features which already exist in Live Journal.

The press releases seem to indicate this will be the case:

Using the free Gizmo Project for LJ Talk voice and IM software, LiveJournal users will be able to make calls and instant message contacts from their LiveJournal Friends list, making it easier to stay in contact. Their existing Friends list will be automatically available to users when they log in to the software using standard LiveJournal account information, and new contacts can be added easily. All calls between LiveJournal users using the software will be free and LiveJournal users will be able to take advantage of the same promotional calling plans that Gizmo Project users enjoy.

It looks like LiveJournal have written their own Jabber server for the IM compnent, which they are opensourcing:

The introduction of the Jabber server continues LiveJournal’s tradition of contributing significant technologies to the open source community…..Any company or service provider wishing to use the LJ Jabber server can go to http://code.sixapart.com for more information.

Hat tip to GigaOM & VoIP Watch.