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Biography

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Lee Rainie,
Pew Internet & American Life Project

Lee Rainie is the founding Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Since December 1999, the Washington D.C. research center has examined how people's internet use affects their families, communities, health care, education, civic and political life, and work places.

In addition, the Project uses regular surveys to track online life. It regularly reports findings on subjects such as teenagers' and senior citizens' use of the internet, broadband adoption, trends in email use, how people employ search engines, use of the internet to gather news (especially about politics), blog creation and readership, and trends in music and movie file sharing.

The Project has issued more than 100 reports based on social issues and online activities. It also has focused research on important public policy questions such as public attitudes about trust and privacy online, development of e-government, attitudes about intellectual property issues, the impact of spam, and the status of digital divides. The Project is non-partisan and takes no positions on policy matters. All of its reports and datasets are available online for free at: www.pewinternet.org.

Prior to launching the Pew Internet Project, Rainie was managing editor of U.S. News & World Report. He is a graduate of Harvard College and has a master's degree in political science from Long Island University.