1. As word processors - in their role as sophisticated typewriters/typesetters (see Word Processing / I3)
2. As data processors - in the role as manipulators of messages and characteristics of messages (keywords etc) (see Data Processing / I8).
Computers need compatible printers and operators. There are several operating languages and a multitude of word processing software, which make life easy within their own software/hardware system but rarely facilitate ease of use outside their own environment. Easiest is to use a system that already works rather than try to assemble a new one for the purpose.
Investigations are already being made into the potential of computer supported messaging/conferencing systems at a conference site. Technically it is irrelevant whether the computer is on-site. What is important is the effective number of terminals on-site. When there are few, this option cannot be usefully distinguished from the previous one. When there are more, participant messages can be fed into the Bulletin from strategically located terminals by secretarial staff. When there are many, participants will then be able to do it themselves (e.g. from hotel rooms on rented terminals, etc.). But although the basic messaging concept remains the same, many other options become possible with computer support, or are affected by it : selective distribution of messages, voting, translation and advisory services, precise charging for messaging services, editorial re-ordering and linkage of messages, etc. These have been explored elsewhere.
An increasing number of experiments are being made with computer conferencing as a means of linking people not present at a single physical location, such as a conventional conference site. The messages typed via terminal to the distant participants in such computer "conferences", and the messages received from them, can both be incorporated into issues of the Bulletin. In fact, to save typing, the locally-received handwritten messages can be typed directly onto the terminal, edited, combined with incoming messages, and then (a) produced from the terminal as a clean copy of the Bulletin issue for local reproduction and distribution, and (b) released over the terminal to the participants at distant locations, who may also reproduce it (see "Case Study 4").
However computers are used, keep alert that they should serve and not dominate.