---
title: "The Internet and Collecting the History of the Present"
description: "This speech covers our findings related to how people used the Internet just after the 9/11 terror attacks and our follow-up survey."
date: "2002-09-10"
authors:
  - name: "Lee Rainie"
    job_title: "Former Director, Internet and Technology Research"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/lee-rainie/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2002/09/10/the-internet-and-collecting-the-history-of-the-present/"
categories:
  - "Digital News Landscape"
  - "International Terrorism"
  - "Platforms & Services"
  - "Terrorism"
tags:
  - "News"
---

# The Internet and Collecting the History of the Present

This speech covers our findings related to how people used the Internet just after the 9/11 terror attacks and it also covers some of the highlights of our follow-up survey on the anniversary of the attacks. In addition to discussing our survey data, the speech covers our findings with WebArchivist.org about how Webmasters changed their sites in response to the terror attacks.