Lambda the Ultimate

As a fairly ubiquitous platform with access to a staggering array of libraries the Java Virtual Machine is a popular choice for language runtime. But the JVM can be one of the hardest VMs to target since it is so tied to Java's semantics *cough*tail calls*cough*.

The Da Vinci Machine Multi Language VM project is attempting to address these challenges by extending the JVM to support language constructs not found in Java. As part of this effort they're having a summit:

The 2008 JVM Language Summit is an open technical collaboration among language designers, compiler writers, tool builders, runtime engineers, and VM architects.

We will share our experiences as creators of programming languages for the JVM, and of the JVM itself.

The invitation closes with

Space is limited. Bring your own language!

PS: Also worth mentioning is that if you are targeting the JVM or thinking of targeting the JVM there's a Google group just for you.