NetHui 2011 (New Zealand’s Internet Governance Forum) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

New Zealand's first national IGF, NetHui 2011, met at the SkyCity Convention Centre in Auckland on 29 June – 1 July 2011, organised by InternetNZ under the theme 'Shaping Our Future Together.'
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig delivered the keynote, and participant-driven discussions ran across six streams, from access and diversity to digital citizenship, law, open government and education.
The deliberate choice of the Māori word 'hui' (gathering) over the formal 'Internet Governance Forum' label opened the national IGF to ordinary citizens — a naming lesson that has travelled well beyond New Zealand.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on NetHui 2011 (New Zealand's Internet Governance Forum) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	NetHui 2011 (New Zealand's Internet Governance Forum)
Dates	29 June – 1 July 2011
Venue	SkyCity Convention Centre, Auckland, New Zealand
Theme	Shaping Our Future Together
Host	InternetNZ (the non-profit that operates the .nz registry)

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. A National IGF That Refuses the Name — The Invention of NetHui

Sessions: Overall event design by InternetNZ

"The Māori word Hui has many definitions including convention, conference, cluster, meeting, assemble, band together, flock together, function and gathering. NetHui will allow all of the above to happen and hopefully have some fun as well."
— Richard Orzecki (Chairman, Māori Internet Society) [3][1][2]

"This is a conference for everyone dealing with Internet-related issues in our society and economy."
— Vikram Kumar (Chief Executive, InternetNZ) [3][1][2]

Judging that 'Internet Governance Forum' evoked policy and government rather than how the Internet is actually run, organisers chose 'NetHui', built on the Māori word hui (gathering) [3][1][2]
Modelled on the UN IGF but designed around participant-driven discussion before, during and after the event, rather than passive listening [3][1][2]
Registration was kept to NZ$30 plus GST, with sponsorship and InternetNZ funding keeping the event cost-neutral [3][1][2]

2. Lawrence Lessig's Keynote — Copyright and Internet Freedom

Sessions: Keynote by the Harvard Law School professor

InternetNZ announced Lessig's visit billing him as one of North America's leading academics, widely known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions and the Creative Commons movement [1][4]
Bringing a global voice to the inaugural NetHui connected New Zealand's domestic debate to worldwide Internet governance discussions [1][4]

3. Six Discussion Streams — From Access to Education

Sessions: Two days of parallel stream discussions plus a synthesis panel day

"It is hard to imagine a life now that is not online. Information is the currency of the online world and personal information is the most valuable part."
— Marie Shroff (Privacy Commissioner) [1][2]

Discussions ran in six streams: Access and Diversity; Digital Citizenship; Globalisation, the Internet and the Law; Government and Openness; Innovation and Emerging Issues; and Education [1][2]
Two days of participatory discussion were followed by a synthesis panel day, with an optional Saturday barcamp for action planning [1][2]

4. An Advisory Board Across Sectors — A Multistakeholder Experiment

Sessions: The NetHui Advisory Board

The advisory board spanned the Privacy Commissioner, a District Court judge (David Harvey), the Government CIO, executives from TradeMe and Xero, Consumer NZ and the Māori Internet Society, each publishing expectations on the official site [1][2]
Xero founder Rod Drury urged attendance, arguing New Zealand was 'small enough to get together' and that it was time for a national digital strategy [1][2]
The event brought the UN IGF's multistakeholder format home: government, business, civil society, technologists and students debating on equal footing [1][2]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What is NetHui — does New Zealand not have an IGF?

A. NetHui IS New Zealand's national IGF. The UN registry lists it as the 'New Zealand IGF', but organiser InternetNZ judged the formal name would keep people away and adopted the Māori word hui (gathering) instead.

Q. What was the highlight of the first edition?

A. Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig's keynote. The world-famous critic of over-restrictive copyright and founder of Creative Commons headlined the inaugural event.

Q. Why should I care?

A. NetHui pioneered the accessibility playbook for national IGFs: a NZ$30 ticket, participant-set agendas, and an indigenous-language name that lowered the barrier to entry.

What Is New Zealand IGF? (for first-time readers)

New Zealand IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2011 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.