I don't know if there is really a demand for such a thing but I would be willing to consider it if enough people are interested. There are probably different interpretations of a "shoutbox" as well, so if you want to provide a link to an example of what you had in mind, it couldn't hurt.
I had also considered trying to set up a weekly informal meeting, possibly on skype or some other system, where people could chat and ask questions, and possibly work together using teamviewer etc. Again, I would need to know if there is any interest in this before spending the time to figure out the best solution, and then an appropriate meeting time would need to be decided on.
Whatever the case, I don't want to be tied to a live chat situation 24/7 because I find it just takes up too much time. For example, I usually only turn skype on when I have a meeting set up already.