For example, participants may be grouped according to the degree of similarity in their responses to a defined set of comments (which could be listed as a questionnaire in an early issue of a Bulletin, and may be either statements designed by an editorial committee or statements received from participants or a mixture of both). The procedure uses statistical techniques, is best processed by computer using matrix correlation software, and requires some special expertise on the part of the designer. Such maps, distributed as hardcopy, can give people a sense of context, the pattern of the conference proceedings, and so allows the issues of conflict, fragmentation and coherence to be more effectively addressed.
Computer graphics could be used to draw maps of the networks of concepts or people described in the previous option. Once this is operational, such maps may be used as non-textual annexes to the Bulletin. They could provide pictoral overview and constitute a focusing device for comments, possibly leading to more precise maps, or alternative maps. Such maps would of course constitute non-linear agendas.