Coming up on this Wednesday, July 16, 2014, the 2014 Internet Governance Forum—USA (IGF-USA) will take place at George Washington University in Washington, DC. I’m told by one of the people involved that there are around 500 people currently registered to attend. The agenda looks quite amazing and can be found at:

http://www.igf-usa.us/page/igf-usa-2014

If you are, like me, unable to attend in person, the good news is that we can follow along through a live video stream at:

http://new.livestream.com/internetsociety/igf-usa-2014

Some of the sessions include:

• Human Rights in the Internet Governance Debate
• Net Neutrality Around the World
• Issues Raised by New Technology: Policy Slam
• The Evolution of the Internet Governance Ecosystem
• Increasing the Accountability of ICANN
• Big Data, The Internet of Things, Privacy and Trust

with some rather amazing panelists participating in each of the sessions. There will also be remarks from some rather senior U.S. government officials including:

• Remarks by Larry Strickling – Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) U.S. Department of Commerce
• Remarks by Danny Sepulveda – U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State
• Remarks by Representative Greg Walden – Chairman, House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
• Remarks by Jonathan Sallet – General Counsel, U.S. Federal Trade Commission

As Steve DelBianco wrote in his post last week, “Want to Make a Difference in Internet Governance? Just Show Up”, the IGF-USA is an important event happening in DC this year. The great news is that if you can’t get there in person you will be able to watch the live video stream. Kudos to the event organizers for making that happen so that all can hear and participate!