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.

Oldenburg’s properties of third places were established almost three decades ago. In order to understand if these properties still hold and if and how ICTs changed the concept of third places, we looked at affordances and practices in nine third places in Paris. Our findings point out that most of the properties have changed and also three new ones have emerged mixing the physical and the virtual. We also provide implications for ICTs that aim at stimulating and supporting properties of third places.

No abstract

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.

Through a participatory design (PD) process with therapists at a neurological chronic care hospital that has no ICT based workflow processes we identified three main components where NUI technology can be deployed for physical therapy: patient stimulation, on-demand patient therapy tool control, and data logging and visualization. Based on our study, we created a scenario that encompasses these components for a specific physical therapy activity targeting head and torso movement for children suffering neurological disorders. The scenario includes a Kinect, large screen and mobile pervasive technologies controlling a game-like activity including data logging and visualization in a shared social intranet. Hospital staff liked the game-activity and logging, but expressed concerns about parallel use of technology. They also wanted to expand the use of the NUI technology in the therapy room leading to new scenarios that we are pursuing. We are using our participatory design process with therapists that are not tainted by the use of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to establish scenarios where NUI designs can provide access to ICT tools to help us develop better NUI design principles.