Network posts template?

I have a (subdirectory) networked installation of WP that I use to power several of my sites. Each site must remain independent (i.e. must remain as separate site on network). However, on my home page (top-level site), I would like to be able to include the posts from all the blogs in my network.

I’d like to create a page template that will:

Detect all sites on network,
Display all posts from each network,
Include post info (post date & time, author, etc.),
Include which site it was posted on, with author, date, time, etc.
Provide titles as permalinks to posts,
Sort all posts chronologically (like a normal feed).

I assume I’ll have to be working with the Loop, and maybe loops within loops.

Then, the plan is to create a page with this template, set it as static home page, and voila! That’s the plan, at least…

Thoughts?