This report is addressed to several related audiences:
- Senior scholars in the humanities and social sciences in a university setting, who have the power to change scholarly practice and the responsibility to exercise that power. These individuals need to address themselves to their national and professional representatives and, locally, to their colleagues, their academic deans, provosts, and presidents.
- Leaders of national academies, scholarly societies, university presses, and research libraries, museums, and archives, who share the power and responsibility of senior scholars and who can speak to leaders at the campus, state, and national levels.
- University provosts, presidents, and boards of trustees, who must decide in the coming decade what strategic investments to make with the limited resources of their institutions and who can influence legislators.
- Legislators at the local, state, and national level charged with making decisions about funding for public schools, public community colleges, public universities, and federally supported research, who have the same responsibility to the public with respect to cyberinfrastructure as they do for physical infrastructure, and for the same reasons—because ultimately, good infrastructure promotes good citizenship and good government by promoting tolerance, understanding, and prosperity.
- Federal agencies and private foundations that promote research in the humanities and social sciences. These organizations have the power to influence individual scholars directly, as well as university provosts, university presses, and scholarly societies.
- Lifelong learners outside the academy who have an abiding interest in the pursuit of knowledge in the humanities and social sciences, including those who enjoy visiting museums and public libraries or informing themselves by reading a book or surfing the Web. Such individuals give voice to the intelligence of the general public and, through their active support and interest in self-education, can influence legislation and funding at the campus, local, state, and national levels, simply by making themselves heard.
Finally, it is important to note that each of these audiences has a responsibility to carry the message of the report to other, broader audiences. Without the active participation such a process implies, this report cannot effect change.
