Hey gang (by which I mean all four of my regular readers and anyone else who stumbles in…) I’m giving a talk early next week, and I need your help naming a concept. I’m talking about the spread of the Internet beyond the 800m people it currently connects, to “the next billion” and beyond.

I like the term “the next billion”, because it sounds so hopeful, like it’s right around the corner. Indeed, I would contend, it’s far closer that the 4.8 billion who still won’t be connected when we get the next billion people online.

It’s that group of people – the last 4.8 billion – that I’d like a catchy name for. I’d love to be able to talk about “the first billion”, “the next billion” and “whatever” and have a term that functioned as useful shorthand for the vast majority of the world’s population who aren’t on the electrical grid, will likely never have a land-based phoneline, generally live on less than $2 a day, are probably in rural areas, etc. Any thoughts?

(Suggestions like “the poor” are probably not helpful. I’d really like some sort of term or phrase that frames this in connectivity terms…)

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions.

ITConversations has put up the audio for my talk at Pop!Tech. They’ve also put online most of the other talks from Pop!Tech, as well as lots of other interesting talks, including a conversation Joi Ito and I had at O’Reilly’s Emerging Tech conference earlier in the year. If you appreciate what Doug Kaye is doing as much as I do, please visit his tip jar and show your support for IT Conversations.

More blogging on Egypt and Jordan coming soon… I need to make it through all the meetings so I can blog them for you!