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Abstract. Cultural differences play a very important role in matching computer interfaces to the expectations of users from different national and cultural backgrounds. But to date, there has been little systematic research as to the extent of such differences, and how to produce software that automatically takes into account these differences. We are studying these issues using a unique resource: Common Sense knowledge bases in different languages. Our research points out that this kind of knowledge can help computer systems to consider cultural differences. We describe our experiences with knowledge bases containing thousands of sentences describing people and everyday activities, collected from volunteer Web contributors in three different cultures: Brazil, Mexico and the USA, and software which automatically searches for cultural differences amongst the three cultures, alerting the user to potential differences.

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Recent CSCW research has shown that nomadicity can be seen as a dynamic process that emerges as people engage with practices supporting them in the mobilisation of their workplace to accomplish work in and across different locations. This paper elaborates on the emergent aspects of the process by detailing a spectrum of motivational and contextual forces that surround and shape nomadic practices. The paper contributes to existing CSCW literature on nomadicity and extends it by articulating the complex intersections of motive and context that shape nomadic practices. The findings that the paper presents emerged from an ethnographic study of a group of academics and their nomadic work/life practices.

Based on an in-depth study with 56 informants (25 women and 31 men), across the ICT (information and communication technology), creative and academic sectors in one city/regional hub in Ireland, this article investigates the so-called revolution in work/life practices associated with the post-Fordist labour processes of the Knowledge Economy from the perspectives of workers themselves. Recent theorizations of post-Fordist work patterns emphasize a rearranging of work and life place boundaries; a reconfiguring of work and life time boundaries; and a dissolving of the gendered boundaries of work and life (production and social reproduction) (Adkins and Dever ; Morini and Fumagalli ; Gill and Pratt ; Weeks ; Hardt and Negri ). Our findings suggest that, instead of dissolving boundaries, workers constantly struggle to draw boundaries between what counts as work and as life, and that this varies primarily in relation to gender and stage in a gendered life trajectory. Work extensification is compensated for via a perceived freedom to shape one's own life, which is articulated in terms of individualized boundary-drawing. While younger men embraced 'always on' work, they also articulated anxieties about how these work habits might interfere with family aspirations. This was also true for younger women who also struggled to make time for life in the present. For mothers, boundary drawing was articulated as a necessity but was framed more in terms of personal choice by fathers. Although all participants distinguished between paid work and life as distinct sites of value, boundaries were individually drawn and resist any easy mapping of masculinity and femininity onto the domains of work and life. Instead, we argue that it is the process of boundary drawing that reveals gendered patterns. The personalized struggles of these relatively privileged middle-class workers centre on improving the quality of their lives, but raise important questions about the political possibilities within and beyond the world of post-Fordist labour.

Good sense can be defined as the quality which someone has to make sensible decisions about what to do in specific situations. It can also be defined as good judgment. However, in order to have good sense, people have to use common sense knowledge. This is not different to computers. Nowadays, computers are still not able to make sensible decisions and one of the reasons is the fact that they lack common sense. This paper focuses on OMCS-Br, a collaborative project that makes use of web technologies in order to get common sense knowledge from a general public and so use it in computer applications. Here it is presented how people can contribute to give computers the knowledge they need to be able to perform common sense reasoning and, therefore, to make good sense decisions. In this manner, it is hoped that software with more usability can be developed.

This paper discusses how common sense knowledge can be used by teachers for planning Learning Activities on health care. Using common sense statements which were automatically collected, we are developing software that can be used to support the teaching and learning process, in a more contextualized form. When teachers consider the knowledge that learners already have, taking into account their common sense knowledge, they can devote their attention to correcting misconceptions, covering ignored topics and avoiding the obvious. Also teachers can consider the common sense knowledge from a group of interest, preparing learners to interact with this group by calling their attention to topics which might be discussed with the group. Through the experiment described here, we demonstrate that common sense can be useful to support the nursing education process, helping teachers to develop learning activities on the health care domain.

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