IGF-USA 2011 — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. The third IGF-USA drew more than 200 participants to Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., on 18 July 2011, with sessions spanning new gTLDs, cloud computing and a 2025 scenario exercise.
2. Closing the day, NTIA administrator Larry Strickling declared this 'a very critical time in the history of the Internet' and urged the audience not to let the newly adopted OECD Internet policymaking principles gather dust.
3. With ICANN's new-gTLD approval and IPv4 exhaustion both landing that year, the record captures a moment when the Internet's foundations were shifting.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on IGF-USA 2011 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)

(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 Critical Moment for Multistakeholderism — Don't File Away the OECD Principles

Sessions: Closing plenary remarks by NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling

"We are at a very critical time in the history of the Internet"
— Lawrence Strickling (Assistant Secretary of Commerce; NTIA Administrator) [2]

"If all that happens with the OECD principles and people file them away in a filing cabinet, then we've failed"
— Lawrence Strickling (Assistant Secretary of Commerce; NTIA Administrator) [2]

• Strickling framed the OECD's June 2011 Internet policymaking principles as ammunition for multistakeholder — not treaty-based — solutions, asking the room 'what's the call of action for all of you?' [2]
• Citing the 27 adopted ICANN accountability-and-transparency (ATRT) recommendations, he noted that 'now the focus turns to ICANN's management and staff' [2]

2. The New gTLD Expansion — Hopes and Homework after ICANN's Approval

Sessions: Workshop on new gTLDs, moderated by Frederick Felman (Mark Monitor)

• Held weeks after ICANN's board approved the new gTLD programme in Singapore (June 2011), the workshop heard that expanding the gTLD space would allow a 'greater degree of innovation and choice' [1]
• As the dedicated DNS-evolution track, it also worked through operational questions such as brand protection [1]

3. Scenarios for 2025 — Regionalization, Government Prevails, Youth Rising

Sessions: Scenario breakouts 'Youth Rising', 'Regionalization' and 'Government Prevails' (about 40 participants each)

• Building on 2010's exercise, participants gamed out three 2025 futures — a regionally fragmented Internet, tightening government control, and a youth-driven net — in small breakout groups [1][3]
• The results were presented at the global IGF in Nairobi that September, cementing the national-to-global feedback loop [1][3]

4. Cloud and Critical Internet Resources — the Year IPv4 Ran Out

Sessions: Workshops on cloud computing and critical Internet resources

• With the IANA central pool of IPv4 addresses exhausted that February, IPv6 migration and DNS security topped the technical agenda; ISOC's Sally Wentworth moderated the critical-Internet-resources panel [1]
• The cloud workshop, led by Georgetown's Michael Nelson, examined what role governments should play in cloud governance [1]

5. Digital Natives and ICTs for Disaster Response — Widening the Circle

Sessions: Best Practice Forums on digital natives and ICTs in disaster response

• A roundtable on digital natives and a forum on ICTs in disaster response broadened the agenda, with more than ten college-age youth serving as moderators [1][3]
• Pew Research's Lee Rainie keynoted on 'Understanding Users' Views', grounding the day's debates in usage data [1][3]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What made this year special?

A. The Internet's foundations moved: IPv4's central pool ran dry in February, and ICANN approved the massive gTLD expansion in June. The forum met weeks later, and the urgency showed.

Q. Most memorable line?

A. Strickling's warning that if the OECD's new Internet principles just get 'filed away in a filing cabinet, then we've failed' — international principles only matter if they're used.

Q. Why does it matter?

A. IPv6 migration became every country's homework, and the new gTLD programme later produced hundreds of new domain endings. This is where the U.S. community first debated both.

What Is USA IGF? (for first-time readers)

USA 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.

Sources & References

1. IGF-USA 2011（公式アーカイブページ） — IGF-USA (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. Internet Governance Forum – USA, 2011: NTIA's Larry Strickling's afternoon remarks — Elon University Imagining the Internet (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. Internet Governance Forum – USA, 2011（セッション別記録アーカイブ） — Elon University Imagining the Internet (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. United States: IGF-USA（GISWatch国別報告） — APC / Global Information Society Watch (accessed 2026-07-11)

Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.

Related links

• IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
• Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
• Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/

Revision History

Rev. 1 — published 10 October 2011, 16:00 (Article published)

Rev. 2 — updated 16 July 2026, 20:09 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))

— 中澤祐樹