RSS Feed and News Aggregator Mobile Apps to Disseminate Information for Research, Extension, and Teaching

Collaboration and cooperation within our college and between our college and the horticultural industry and public is important. This, in part, involves disseminating up-to-date information. The use of mobile devices and apps (applications), specifically RSS feed and news aggregator apps, can help achieve this. The objective was to develop an approach to help our college's research, instruction, and extension personnel find and make known current information to end users. RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering changing web content to a user. RSS feeds help you easily stay updated by retrieving the latest content from sites that you are interested in. New aggregators search the web to bring you news stories and information that is significant to you. Based on reviews of apps and my personal evaluation, I selected the iPad apps Feedly, Zite, Read by QxMD, Fox News, and those of local television news stations. These apps were used to retrieve pertinent articles, websites, news stories, and videos on topics, keywords, and scientific journal titles that I had specified. Looking at the titles and briefly evaluating the content helped me determine if these resources would be relevant to specific individuals. For faculty and staff within our department, college, and university, this was done by familiarizing myself with their research and extension projects, and what courses they teach. I e-mailed appropriate articles, websites, news stories, and videos to colleagues in our department, our college, graduate students, undergraduate students, student organizations such as the undergraduate Horticulture Society and the TPSS Graduate Student Organization; and the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, University of Hawaii. I sent information to colleagues at the University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management, Windward Community College, and Leeward Community College. I further disseminated information to industry organizations such as the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers, Hawaii Export Nursery Association, Hawaii Department of Agriculture, Noelani Elementary School teachers, and private companies such as Mari's Gardens, Hawaiian Turfgrass, and Island Fungi. Lastly, I shared information with colleagues in departments of horticulture at U.S. mainland universities. In conclusion, RSS Feed and News Aggregator apps have enabled me to disseminate relevant information to others and to demonstrate this approach for their possible adoption.