Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Lee  RainieAs director of the Pew
Internet & American Life Project, Lee Rainie has a unique perspective on the
intersection of technology and society.

His nonprofit research organization uses survey data to produce insightful
reports examining the Internet’s effect on families, communities, work and
home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life.

Previously, Rainie was managing editor of U.S. News & World Report. He spent
12 years at the magazine, editing several sections during his tenure and
overseeing the magazine’s online presence.

Rainie recently sat down with internetnews.com at the World Wide Web
Consortium’s (W3C) 10th Anniversary event in Boston to discuss Internet
trends.

Q: Your project produces between 12 and 15 reports a year looking at
Internet trends. What, if anything, has surprised you the most from your
research?

There are a couple of real surprises. American women are more likely to play
online games than men. They are doing board games and cards games and
things like that.

Another big surprise in our data was when we asked non-Internet users if
they live in a home with Internet access. Twenty percent [do]. For some,
[not being online] is a proud lifestyle choice; some don’t want to get in
the queue for that computer.

Or, for a number, they still have some tech wariness; they don’t know if
they’re as [adept as their] teenage son, their husband or granddaughter. They have [a
family member] send and receive e-mail for them or look things up.

The growth of online banking has surprised me. [In our surveys, it rates as]
fastest or second-fastest growing use. It’s all about convenience and banks
building trust with existing customers.

Q: What role did the Internet play in the fall elections?

The 2003-2004 cycle was notable for a couple of things. One
was that social networking evolved, services like Meetup and Friendster.
Howard Dean taught everyone how to do new kinds of mobilization and
constituent-building.

Then there were orders of magnitude. More money was raised online than in
2000. Equally interesting is that of all the money raised online,
less than 1 percent was spent on online ads; it was dumped into TV ads. It
was a gold rush for local TV stations in [battleground] states. The Internet
proved itself as a [fundraising] tool, but no one thought it was a good way to
persuade people.

There was also the blogger phenomenon,
which highlights the broader civic
chatter going on in discussion groups, family lists; there were incredible
amounts of political discussion going on. [They] challenged the mass media
and candidates.

Q: There’s a lot of hand-wringing about the United States’ place in
worldwide broadband rankings. What’s your take on it?

The biggest hindrance to widespread broadband adoption is that we’re not
growing new Internet users anymore. In the fall of 2001, Internet
penetration hit a wall. It started inching up again this year, but it’s not
dramatically different than when the towers were attacked. Part of the reason is
economic.

Part of it is we might have reached close to a saturation point for
available interested people. Thirty-seven percent of adults don’t use the
Internet; half say they won’t. Over the next five to 10 years, [the adoption
rate] might, like cable, hit a high of around 70 percent.

There’s still some resistance. That changes. Kids are wild about the
Internet. And broadband users are almost invariably people who have a number
of years of dial-up experience.

I’m a believer in American exceptionalism. In America you have to
string a lot of wire to remote places or install antennas. There are
technological barriers, but bigger ones inside people’s heads.

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