Now that my blog is gaining momentum and averaging 1,000 hits a day, maybe I should tell the world a little about me and what I what I want to use this space for.

I work in Sydney Australia and have been at Sun for nearly five years. I work for finance in the ITC (invoice To Collect) space working in Process Complice for ITC at a global level reporting to Caryn Schraner and are part of the Global ITC Opps team.

My role covers Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) requirements for ITC, process compliance for ITC globally for ITC and internal and external audit resoulution.  I also work on process improvement initatives in the ITC space.  My prior roles at Sun have been in Cash Applications for APAC and the SunRAMP ERP project.

Prior to Sun I worked in banking for 8 years at Bank of America primarily in cash management and trade finance. I have an economics / finance background with a first degree in Economics, graduate diploma in applied finance and investment and a Master of Commerce. I am now working towards my EMBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management and are in my final semester of the program.  I am currently in the final or Executive Year which has a main focus on Straregic Management.

My interests are skiing, triathlon and marathons. I have skied all over the world and race at a club level. I have competed in many triathlons and completed the Australian Ironman Traiathlon (3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run) in 2002 and have run 5 Sydney marathons.

That is enough about me. What I want to use this space for is a communication tool on my job as many of my colleges are based all around the world. So you will see regular updates on compliance and SOX.  I have a passion for what is new in the world of IT and media and you will see updates on the future.  I also want to pass on some of the learnings from graduate school.  I also want to bring some flavor as to what is happening in Sydney and Australia to the wider world and to have some fun. Cheers. Kirk
kirk.parcel-AT-sun-DOT-com

Further to my post abour PCs for the poor, ourlined below are a number of examples:

Several partners, including Advanced Micro Devices and Red Hat, have lined up behind this $100 machine from Nicholas Negroponte and the MIT Media Center. But to hit that low price, the machine's makers have to leave out all but the basics. The unit comes with only a 500MHz processor and 500MB of local storage (in the form of flash memory--the laptops won't include drives). And the units don't sport mainstream applications.

Designed by Advanced Micro Devices, the Personal Internet Communicator runs on a version of Windows CE and an energy-efficient processor. The machines cost about $180 without monitor--not that much cheaper than a full-fledged PC with monitor. They've been released in India and the Caribbean, but sales have been tepid.

Check out this amazing tool from AMD that tracks in real time the worlds population and internet usage.

What is staggering is how fast the world population is growing before your eyes. What is more staggering is how much faster internet usuage is growing. However only 16.7% of the worlds population is using the internet.

The tool is here

Think how fortunate we are to have access to the internet. Only about 1 billion, or 16 percent of the 6.5 billion people living today, use the Internet, according to a running tally at Advanced Micro Devices.

Think of the opportunities for Sun if we can cheap PCs to the remaining 5.5 billion people and get those people on the network and part of the participation age.

The Particpation Age is built on a model 0f networked human beings who share, interact and solve problems. Their participation creates ideas, information, opportunities, entertainment and value, social and economic, everywhere network.

However only about 1 billion, or 16 percent of the 6.5 billion people living today, use the Internet, according to a running tally at Advanced Micro Devices. In order to truely drive the Particpation Age access to cheap PC is crucial in order that the remaining 5.5 billion people can access the network and particpate. 5.5 billion people today do not use the internet, think about that and think about the opportunity for Sun.

PCs for the poor is crucial to drive the Participation Age. It's easy to list the benefits of bringing inexpensive computers to the billions of people who live in rural villages and urban centers in the developing world.

Village computers allow kids to take classes in areas where schools have closed and let adults learn pricing strategies for their agricultural products. A van rigged with a satellite connection and printers produces inexpensive books for kids in Uganda.

In some countries, like Egypt, a growing technology base holds the promise of a rising middle class, and eventual political stability.

Designing machines that are resilient, powerful and cheap enough to reach those not yet online, though, has proven a lot tougher than expected. India's Simputer, an inexpensive handheld, flopped. Brazil has worked for years on a Linux PC for the poor, to no avail.

"Initiatives of this sort need serious consideration from everyone. Developing nations need to start teaching about technology early in schools," said Luis Anavitarte, an analyst at Gartner. "But the reality kind of changes when we look at the costs and the functionality of these devices."

Recently, some new ideas have come to the forefront. For a quick rundown of their pros and cons, refer here