Bridging Consumer-Farmer Mobile Application Divide

Electronic mediums such as websites, feeds, blogs and social media sites are on a daily basis influencing our decision making, are improving our productivity and are shaping futures of many consumers and service/product providers. This research identifies that both customers and business providers heavily rely on smart phone applications. Based on this, mobile applications available on iTunes store were studied. It was identified that fruit and vegetable related applications used by consumers can broadly be categorized into purchase applications, diaries, tracking health applications, trip farm location and cooking applications. On the other hand, applications used by farmers can broadly be classified as: weather tracking, pests / fertilizer applications and general social media applications such as Facebook. To blur this farmer-consumer application divide, our research utilizes Context Specific eTransformation Framework and based on it identifies characteristic future consumer-farmer applications will need to have so that the current divide can be narrowed and consequently better farmerconsumer supply chain link established.

Authors:

• A. Hol

Keywords:

• Smart Phone Applications
• SME
• Farmers
• Consumer
• Fruit and Vegetable
• Technology
• Business Innovation.

References:

[1] G. Griffith, and J. Wilkinson. "Small Business in NSW: Statistical
snapshot and recent developments," 10 March 2014;
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/publications.nsf/key/S
mallBusinessinNSW:Statisticalsnapshotandrecentdevelopments/$File/S
mall+Business+in+NSW+4.pdf.
[2] E. Connolly, D. Norman, and T. West. "Small Business: An Economic
Overview," 1 April 2014; http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/
D3310114.nsf/4a256353001af3ed4b2562bb00121564/d291d673c4c5aab
4ca257a330014dda2/$FILE/RBA%20Small%20Business%20An%20ec
onomic%20Overview%202012.pdf.
[3] A. Hol, O. Mubin, and A. Ginige, “Proposed Business Model for SME
Farmers in Peri-Urban Sydney Region,” in ICE-B - International
Conference on E-Business, Vienna, Austria August, 28-30, 2014, 2014.
[4] K. Toyama, “Human‚ Äìcomputer interaction and global development,”
Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 4, no. 1,
pp. 1-79, 2010.
[5] A. Dhir, I. Moukadem, N. Jere, P. Kaur, S. Kujala, and A. YlaJaaski,
"Ethnographic Examination for Studying Information Sharing Practices
in Rural South Africa." pp. 68-74.
[6] M. B. Rosson, and J. M. Carrol, “Scenario-Based Design: The Human
Computer Interaction Handbook,” Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp.
1032-1050., 2002.
[7] A. Hol, “Mobile Application Set to Empower SME Farmers in Peri-
Urban Sydney Region” in ICIS 2014: International Conference on
Information Systems, Venice, Italy November, 13-14, 2014.
[8] A. Hol, “Context Specific eTransformation Decision Making
Framework” in ICIS 2014: International Conference on Information
Systems, Venice, Italy November, 13-14, 2014.
[9] F. Parker, “Making periurban farmers on the fringe matter”. State of
Australian Cities Conference, Adelaide, November, 28, 2007
[10] AppleComputing, "iTunes Online Library," iPhone applications, Apple
Computing, 2015.
[11] R. Costa, L. Marcelino, C. Silva, “Profile-based System for Nutritional
Information Management” IEEE 15th International Conference on e-
Health Networking, Applications and Services (Healthcom 2013),
Polytech. Inst. of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal, 2013.
[12] T. Ginige, and D. Richards, “A Model for Enhancing Empowerment in
Farmers Using Mobile Based Information System”, in Australasian
Conference on Information Systems 2012, ACIS, Geelong, Australia,
2012.