Here's the big picture:

There will be four big sessions and two much shorter evening sessions. The big sessions, 3.5 hours each, will have a 45-minute break in the middle. (So, for example, the 2-to-5:30 session will run from 2:00 to 3:30 and from 4:15 to 5:30.)

The general BigHook idea is to engage each other in discussion. I do not know where discussion will take us this time. I've tried to do the BigHook2001 agenda with enough generality that we can discover new directions together but with enough specificity that we're not looking for the same old keys under the same old streetlight.

We will all need to cooperate! It is not easy to do a discussion when 50 smart, active, accomplished, verbal people are dealing with topics about which they know a lot and have strong opinions. With 50 people in the room, a discussion will only work in an atmosphere of respectful listening. Furthermore, it will only work if, when we do speak, we are conscious of our tone of voice, the airtime we're using, and the contribution we're making to each other.

This year, we're going to try something new -- we'll open each discussion with an informal panel. I've tentatively assigned panelists -- see below. The role of these panelists will be more discussion-starter than knowledge-transferor. It'd be good if each panelist prepares 3 to 5 minutes giving their perspective on the session's topic -- especially on what they view to be the critical questions. (The exception to the 3-5 minute rule is that I'd like David Reed and Clay Shirky to prepare to speak longer, 20 minutes each, on The Architecture of Innovation.)

If you're listed as a panelist and don't want to be, write me. If you're not listed, and want to be a panelist, write to me too. If you think you're on the wrong panel, ditto.

Also, this year I'm going to try to facilitate some of the sessions myself. I may invite couple of other BigHookers with facilitation experience to guest-facilitate a session or two too. If you're qualified and interested, please contact me.

Finally, if you're not a panelist, and you're too shy to just jump into the conversation, everybody will have a coupon good for three minutes of floor time, which they can "play" by handing it to the facilitator at any time.

Here's the agenda:

Wednesday - 9/5 -- Noon to 2:00 PM - Check in, lunch, swimming, meet fellow participants.

Wednesday - 9/5 -- 2:00 to 5:30 PM - Session 1: What boundaries? What network?

Bushnell, Cochrane, Kojima, Laws, Maffei, Wang -- We'll go around the room and do introductions. I'll have a few words about what I think the boundaries of the network are and why they are so important. Then we'll kick off the discussion with a few words from Nolan Bushnell, Dave Hofstatter and Andy Maffei about what they're doing at their own network boundaries. After the break, I'd like to get the international perspective of Peter Cochrane, Malcolm Laws, Kojima-san and Gigi Wang about what' the boundaries are in Europe and Asia, and on what Europeans and Asians think is going on in the US of A.

Wednesday - 9/5 -- 5:30 to 8:30 PM - New England Clambake, music by Joe Weed and friends, fishing.

Wednesday - 9/5 -- 8:30 to 9:30 PM - Session 2: Holy Halibut! What happened to the Communications Revolution?

Googin, Kamman, Stansberry, Weinberger -- One year ago, everybody except Roxane Googin thought that the party would last all night. Now Bob Berger says we're in the Dark Ages of Telecom. Matt Oristano says, "The non-digerati think the net's a failure, Wall Street says the techies overbuilt it and nobody came, the [geeks say] the RBOCs ruined it, and the media say it was an investment scam-bubble." What a difference a year makes. What happened? Where are we now? Googin, Kamman and Stansberry will give investor perspectives, then (I hope) Weinberger will tell us what he thinks the Communications Revolution *really* is.

Thursday - 9/6 -- 7:00 to 8:30 AM - Breakfast

Thursday - 9/6 -- 8:30 AM to Noon - Session 3: Architectures of innovation -- and their backlash.

Lessig, Lucky, Reed, Shirky -- David Reed and Clay Shirky are two of the clearest thinkers on the planet about how architecture is destiny. There are architectures that foster innovation and architectures that squelch it. Unfortunately, the architectures that foster innovation seem to be the very ones that blow up incumbent business models. After the break, Bob Lucky and Larry Lessig will kick off a discussion of incumbent reactionism.

Thursday - 9/6 -- Noon to 2:00 PM - Lunch, swimming.

Thursday - 9/6 -- 2:00 to 5:30 PM - Session 4: Infrastructure of the membrane.

Freeburg, Hendricks, Norman, O'Dell, Oristano, Thatcher -- The access architecture, like a cell membrane, has an active infrastructure that intermediates between the inside and the rest of the world. First, Norman, O'Dell and Thatcher will kick off a discussion of the technology of wired access, then after the break, Freeburg, Hendricks, and Oristano will set up the infrastructure of the wireless infrastructure discussion.

Thursday - 9/6 -- 5:30 to 8:30 PM - Dinner, music by Joe Weed and friends, fishing.

Thursday - 9/6 -- 8:30 to 9:30 PM - Session 5: The "free" market, the Sweden/Canada model, or a third way?

Bradner, Comstedt, Ekelund, St. Arnaud, Stansberry -- The current market for network access , dominated by ILEC dinosaurs, isn't a "free market" -- not by a long shot. I want to believe that Sweden and Canada have the answer, but I've been around conservative theorists like George Gilder and Porter Stansberry too long to trust that they do. (For one thing, government mistakes, like telco mistakes, tend to last and last and last.) I'm hoping that we can rub Stansberry's criticism and Bradner's pragmatism against the perspectives of St. Arnaud, Comstedt and Ekelund to come up with better questions, or at least a good discussion.

Friday - 9/7 -- 7:00 to 8:30 AM - Breakfast

Friday - 9/7 -- 8:30 AM to Noon - Session 6: Where are the opportunities under all these questions?

I'm not going to nominate any panelists or attempt a description here. I don't know where we'll be by Friday morning. I expect to be surprised. My hope is that we will be able to gain a longer perspective and identify new opportunities that will make the network a better place to live and work, not only for us, but for our childrens children, and for the 3 Billion people on the planet who have not yet logged on.

Friday - 9/7 -- Noon to 2:00 PM - Lunch, music by Joe Weed and friends.

Friday - 9/7 -- 2:00 PM - Adjourn.