One woman, somewhere in the world, becomes a victim of sex trafficking, forced prostitution, gender-based violence, or maternal mortality every 90 seconds. Now, a powerful cabal of producers, NGO’s, gamers and celebrities have joined forces in a transmedia project of unprecedented proportion to address this heinous reality.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the acclaimed book by Pulitzer Prize-winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, is the centerpiece of the project which includes a four-hour PBS miniseries (trailer above), mobile games in India and Africa, websites and educational materials, and a social action game coming to Facebook in November.Continue reading...

The Village Voice is under fire over Backpage — not the classified-jammed back page of its iconic free city newspaper, but Backpage.com, the subsidiary of Villlage Voice Media which expands its lucrative classifieds biz, warts and all, to the web. And by warts, we mean venereal warts, because Backpage.com makes a big portion of its income from adult classifieds, which have been accused of enabling human trafficking.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has been on Backpage's back over the issue, which is near and dear to his heart. And now brands are protesting too.Continue reading...