Brava, Whitney, for a powerful and important piece. Where some may have taken on a shrill tone, you instead get down to the brass tacks of what lasting, meaningful change requires. We don't need a token or a figurehead. We need sustainable, equitable representation in the governing bodies that control how we communicate, think and conduct business. And we are very, very far from that. Thank you for reminding us, so eloquently.

I've been needing to get a regular report up and running so the timing of my stumble upon this post is perfect. You must be a true-blue value-added investor!

Dave -- good post. As I mom and starting a social net I think about this a lot and wrote about it on my blog (http://bit.ly/c2aGpB): I call it the “bikini on the beach” phenomenon. There is an age when a gal can strut down the beach in a bikini, and everyone is pleased. If that picture lands on Facebook, no problem! A day comes when I’m not comfortable wearing that bikini in public anymore, and certainly don’t want anyone taking a picture of it, and damn well don’t want anyone posting it on Facebook. Stretch marks, scars, natural weight gain. No thank you. Funny how that’s pretty much exactly the same time that I have kids, whose pictures it may or may not be appropriate or safe to post in public. We are responsible for other people besides just ourselves. We may be *more* open and honest to the people in our inner circle we know and trust. But we’re more wary of strangers than when we were younger, because we know strangers can be cruel. Health issues are a useful proxy for this discussion. I have 5 friends my age who have or have had cancer. Each handled privacy completely differently. Do they post it publicly on Facebook? On one hand, they want support of their friends….but do they need support of 1200 friends? Are they opening themselves up to workplace discrimination? Do they check into chemo on Foursquare? What if they haven’t told their young kids? When people hear the C word, they tend to treat you completely differently — like the walking dead. The women in particular have wished to keep it very private. It’s really personal, and really complex. Speaking for women at least, there is an inner circle who we take advice from, where the real word of mouth happen. It's about 10-12 girlfriends (including mom and sisters). That's where the gold lies if you want to seriously monetize word of mouth.