Interesting theme...
 
First some musing...
 
Brings to mind one of my recent visits to Muir Woods (north of San Francisco
in Marin County) where I watched people walking through the redwoods with
video cameras recording their visit.
I wondered in what way the cameras were affecting the "authenticity" of
the "primal" experience of the redwoods.  And yet somehow the video cameras
(& perhaps this applies to "kodaks" as well?) help to authenticate the
experience?
 
The theme raises issues which have been discussed/debated before, like
what is the "appropriate" role of computers vis a vis "the real thing"
/ "natural objects"?  My own view is that computers are best used to provide
what can not be provided effectively by other means...
 
For example, I believe GIS (geographic information systems) applications
are excellent examples.  The ability to combine (blend) different map
layers on demand at varying levels of resolution -- this can reflect
chronologic changes & incorporate remote sensing ("raster" type
images) -- is an application which can not really be replicated in other
media (except very clumsily)...
 
Another application is the "powers of 10" type which allows one to move
from electron microscopy to radio telescopy (is that a word?) on demand.
 
These are a couple of applications which I could see very easily being
both useful and successful in an outdoor interpretive context...
 
A couple of early applications of these sorts of ideas were put up by
NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries at Stearn's Wharf in Santa Barbara
& at the Cliff House in San Francisco -- they ran on Mac's with a roller
ball for public access...
 
Tom  Moritz
California Academy of Sciences
(currently based at IUCN in Gland, Switzerland)