Shoe website Ryz allows users to submit their personal designs for consideration by others to be produced in limited runs. Winners get prize money and Ryz produces a unique product without the delays faced in the standard production cycle of a consumer product.

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly a quarter of Americans say they regularly learn something about the campaign from the Internet, more than double the amount of people from 2004. Forty-two percent of those aged 18-29 regularly learn about the campaign from the Internet, making it the number one information source for that age demographic.

The Virtual Assistant industry has been growing,
driven in part by professionals who prefer the flexibility and control of their
schedule and working environment, a demand from businesses to increase
efficiency, and technology that enables this be feasible and affordable. Mario talks with Becky Gregory, of Virtual Administrative Services, about this growing occupation, who might be able to benefit from it, and what it takes to make it into a career.

Sales in the US video game industry reached a record high of about 17.9 billion dollars in 2007. Mario talks about video game-related careers with Scott Steinberg, Chief Marketing Officer and publisher of DigitalTrends.com and Director of Embassy Multimedia Consultants. Scott recently wrote a new book called Get Rich Playing Games which is available as a free download.

NBC
paid about eight hundred and ninety-four million dollars for the broadcasting
rights for the seventeen day event Olympics this year. Why is this a big deal and what does it mean for the future of television? NBC hopes to gain unprecendented statistical viewership information on multiple platforms in order to sell advertising for the upcoming fall and this has large implications for the rest of the major networks and their new media initiatives.

What platforms and technology are allowing real time two-way coverage at the 2008 Republication National Convention? Mario speaks with Matt Burns, Director of Communications.

The MT9 format has six user-controllable unmixed channels of sound – chorus, vocals, bass and drum, guitar, and piano. What this translates into is a format that allows the user to have control over how the file is heard, for instance, say you hate the sound of Britney Spear’s voice but just love the production values? You can mix down the vocal channel and have an instant karaoke version. You could create an a capella version of the last Kanye Album, or cut out the guitar on a Green Day song and play along with your guitar.

New York State legislature recently included a provision in the budget passed in April, which could result in about 50 million dollars coming in from a tax from online retailers, mostly coming from e-tailer Amazon.com. Some opponents say that electronic commerce will be stilted by the tax and that state and local laws are too complex for online retailers to deal with. But others point to smaller online merchants commonly which use services like Yahoo Stores, Paypal, or Google Checkout to process transactions which allow specific tax rules to be set.

Proponents argue that the tax levels the playing field for traditional bricks and mortar stores and that the increased tax revenues for the state would be a reasonable benefit. But taxes are usually only required to be collected from businesses that employ agents or representatives within a state, how exactly does Amazon qualify as a physical presence in the state?

Mario speaks with Bob Cringely, host of the the tech documentary The Transformation Age airing on Public Television. The program explores the office, the marketplace, media, finances and our digital lives as they take new forms and remove the barriers of time, distance, wealth, education and even age. You can find out more about the program and when it airs here.

Unemployment is going up in the U.S., but nearly a quarter of employers are struggling to find talent, at least when it comes to employees in the engineering fields.  Fewer than ten percent of graduating college students in the U.S. are studying engineering.

In order to increase interest in the science and engineering fields, the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge was created in 1999 for  students in grades five through eight. Ten finalists receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. with the winner receiving the grand prize of a fifty-thousand dollar savings bond. Dr. Alex Cirillo from 3M talks about the specifics of this competition.