Tim (and Mike, since you may not know), there is a FreeVM-L again. It is co-hosted at Marist and BMC. I don't remember the exact charter of Mike's original list, but the charter of the current list is to discuss VM terms and concepts, NOT to produce a hypervisor.
Regarding V12N schemes, there are many. True hypervisors are represented by z/VM, VMware, and MS Virt Server. Emulators are of course the opposite end of the game and include Flex-ES and Hercules (z) and BOCHS (x). In the middle are such things as UML, FreeBSD "jails", and Virtuozzo. So ... the purpose of the discussion/project is to rationalize these, not necessarily re-invent any of them. Please join up! -- R;
