thePlatform is a Seattle, WA-based online video publishing company, which was acquired by Comcast in 2006. Founded in 2000 by Ian Blaine and Andrew Olson, the company works with digital media companies to manage and publish video and audio.

thePlatform's Media Publishing System (mps) is thePlatform's main product offering. This system comprises four sub-products, mpsManage, mpsConnect, mpsPresent, and mpsExperts.

thePlatform was founded in 2000 by Ian Blaine, Andrew Olson, Alan Ramaley, and Rahul Sonnad. Previously, in 1998, Blaine founded an online personal information management company, Uniplanet, which was acquired by NBCi in 1999.

In June 2006, Comcast purchased the Seattle-based software company thePlatform. This represented Comcasts' entry into a new line of business, selling software to allow companies to manage their Internet (and IP-based) media publishing efforts.

Customers of thePlatform include Verizon Wireless, BBC Worldwide, PBS, CNBC, CBS College Sports, AP, NBC Local, and HiT Entertainment. thePlatform also provides media access for Hulu, the joint venture by NBC Universal and News Corporation providing on-demand, ad-supported television programming owned by NBC, Universal Studios, and Fox_Tv.

The Platform is the debut album of the West Coast hip hop group Dilated Peoples. It was released in 2000 under the Capitol Records label, and represents a movement of several California underground hip hop artists away from the violence and misogyny of gangsta rap, towards a more traditional, conscious form of rap.

Nicola Formichetti (Italian pronunciation: [niˌkɔːla fɔɾmiˈketti]; born 31 May 1977) is an internationally prolific fashion director and fashion editor of mixed Italian and Japanese heritage. He is most widely known as the new creative director for the French fashion house MUGLER, and for being a frequent collaborator with singer-songwriter and performance artist Lady Gaga. Formichetti is also known as fashion director of Vogue Hommes Japan, is a contributing editor of several other fashion magazines, and is fashion director for the clothing company Uniqlo. In November 2010 he was named one of the "most influential creative forces working in fashion today." The following month he was awarded the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at the 2010 British Fashion Awards.

The son of a Japanese stewardess and an Italian pilot, Formichetti was born in Japan and grew up in Rome and Tokyo, attempting to assimilate in both cultures. As a child he trained as a classical pianist (and still plays for relaxation). But moving to London became his great desire and he used the excuse of attending an architecture school to which he was accepted in order to get there. Formichetti has explained that instead of attending he "literally walked in the front door of the architecture school and then ran out of the back one to go clubbing for three years." He became a student of the nightlife and street fashions, and began working at a fashionable boutique called 'The Pineal Eye' where he would become art director and head buyer for two years.

Claire Victoria Marshall (born 1975) is a British journalist who works for BBC News.

Graduating from Blundell's School, Devon in 1993, she began studying for a law degree at Balliol College, Oxford after which she went to the Cardiff University to undertake a post-graduate diploma in broadcast journalism. Marshall joined ITN as a trainee junior producer on the contract to produce news for Five from its launch. Marshall then joined Sky News as text producer, before producing Sunrise.

Marshall became a freelance reporter and producer in 2000, including working for the BBC in Peru. She then reported for the BBC from Madrid, the Middle East and Mexico. She returned to the UK in 2007 as a News Correspondent, a role in which she reported on a variety of stories that did not need a specialist reporter for BBC Radio, BBC News and BBC One. She soon also became a frequent relief presenter on the BBC News channel and also BBC World News, and stood in on BBC Breakfast at the weekend. In 2008 she returned to South America as a correspondent, giving up her presenting role. Claire returned to the UK when she was appointed the BBC's Midlands Correspondent, working for network news and regularly appearing on the BBC Six and Ten O'Clock news, and the West Midland regional news Midlands Today.

Tyra Lynn Banks (born December 4, 1973). is an American model, media personality, actress, occasional singer, author and businesswoman. She first became famous as a model, appearing twice on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and working for Victoria's Secret as one of their original Angels. Banks is the creator and host of the UPN/The CW reality television show America's Next Top Model, co-creator of True Beauty, and host of her own talk show, The Tyra Banks Show.

Tyra Banks was born in Inglewood, California. She is the daughter of Caroline (née London; now London-Johnson), a medical photographer, and Donald Banks, a computer consultant. She has a brother, Devin, who is five years older. In 1980, when Banks was 6 years old, her parents divorced. Banks attended John Burroughs Middle School and graduated in 1991 from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles. Tyra Banks is one of four African Americans and seven women to have repeatedly ranked among the world's most influential people by Time magazine.