Jay-Z is an American rapper and businessman. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over USD$150 million, selling over 30 million copies of his albums in the United States alone and receiving an outstanding ten Grammy Awards for his musical work.

Why it’s in the Showcase: Jay-Z is one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.

We inspire athletes and connect communities. With more than 20,000 participants, 12,000 volunteers, and 1 million spectators along the course, the Los Angeles Marathon is one of the largest organized road races in the world.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The LA Marathon uses WordPress to power a majority of its website, including static content, a forum powered by bbPress, videos, photos, and more.

The National Geographic Magazine, later shortened to National Geographic, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. With a worldwide circulation in thirty-two language editions of nearly nine million, more than fifty million people receive the magazine every month. In May 2007 and 2008, National Geographic magazine won the American Society of Magazine Editors’ General Excellence Award in the over two million circulation category and the best photography award for three issues of the magazine in 2006. A nominee for the General Excellence award in 2009, National Geographic won the top award for editorial photography.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The Dutch version of the website for National Geographic Magazine is certainly a notable implementation of WordPress.

To celebrate HD video within the Nikon D5000 we’d like you to show us “A Day through your Lens.” Upload your video here and instantly share it with your social media networks rather than sending the same old updates. How? When you upload your video you can automatically share your video with your Twitter followers and place it on your Facebook feed, so your friends can also view your day and vote on your video.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The well-designed site for the the Nikon Festival is powered entirely by WordPress and is an excellent example of a site making use of videos, rating plugins, and more.

The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is a United States Navy (USN) organization that controls most of the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) became solely responsible for the Department of Defense’s ocean transport needs. The MSTS was renamed the Military Sealift Command in 1970.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The custom theme developed for MSC’s stand-alone WordPress installation was greatly extended to offer several features on this site. Unique queries were written to allow for the automation of job opening expirations, career fair schedules, and news announcements. The site serves an average of 50,000 unique visitors per month and is a very important hiring tool for MSC.

A native of Hollis, Queens, who built his foundation as a journalist over the course of 14 years in New York and Philadelphia, Stephen A. Smith, once widely recognized as one of the most popular voices on ESPN, is still one of the preeminent voices in the African-American Community. He is currently the early morning show host on Fox Sports Radio.

Why it’s in the Showcase: Stephen A. Smith is a widely recognized media personality who has broken major news on his WordPress-powered website.

SAP.info is the information platform for the SAP community. Read about customers, partners, and the ecosystem.

Why it’s in the Showcase: SAP.info is a leading resource for information on the SAP community. The site is available in 8 languages and languages can be switched on any subpage instead of having to be switched from the homepage.

Welcome to Inside BlackBerry, Research In Motion (RIM)’s BlackBerry® smartphone blog. While you’ve been avidly discussing smartphones every day – what you love and what you’ve just discovered – we’ve been listening intently. And we feel that we can add our voice and contribute to the community.

Why it’s in the Showcase: BlackBerry is one of the world’s most recognizable technology brands and the company’s decision to use WordPress to power its official blog is notable.

Pepsi is giving away millions in grants each month to fund great ideas as part of its Refresh Everything campaign.

Why it’s in the Showcase: Refresh Everything is a major marketing campaign for one of the world’s largest companies. The company chose WordPress to power the campaign’s blog.

The Clouds 365 Project represents my commitment to do something creative every day. Beginning July 1, 2009, I will shoot an image or video of clouds every day for 365 days. On days that are cloudless or rainy, I will have to stretch creatively to illustrate the day. There are no rules, I just want to react and see where this project takes me.

Why it’s in the Showcase: The Clouds 365 project has taken off. The site’s Facebook fan page has over 20,000 fans and the site’s Twitter account has more than 5,000 followers. The site is a pure photo blog, displaying large high quality images – everyday for 6 months so far, with many different category and page templates. I site’s homepage, depending on screen resolution, shows up to 45 images at a time.