Who is J.D. Lasica?

With more people turning to A.I. models for search results, it’s interesting to note that the A.I. engines often do a better job than Wikipedia. That’s certainly the case when it comes to my bio. I asked a veteran Wikipedia editor to update my Wikipedia bio to account for updates in my professional career, and she was hamstrung by Wikipedia’s overly stringent requirements.

Here, then, is a more accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive biography:

Joseph Daniel “J.D.” Lasica

Born: July 27, 1965, Passaic, New Jersey
Education: Elmwood Park High School; B.A. in Communication, Rutgers University
Occupation: Entrepreneur, author, journalist, public speaker, AI expert, photographer
Spouse: Mary Louise Lasica (m. June 22, 1996)
Children: Robert James Lasica (b. April 21, 1999)
Residence: Dorado, Puerto Rico

Early Life and Education

Lasica grew up in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, and graduated from Elmwood Park High School. He earned a B.A. in Communication from Rutgers University. His journalism career began as an editor and columnist for the Sacramento Bee in 1985.[1]

Journalism and New Media Career

After leaving the Sacramento Bee in 1997, Lasica joined Microsoft’s Sidewalk.com as copy chief and managing editor. From 1997 to 2005, he was a prolific freelance writer—for example, as the first new media columnist for the American Journalism Review, chief columnist for the Online Journalism Review[2], and a columnist at Engadget.[3] In 2003, he edited We Media: How Audiences Are Shaping the Future of News and Information, an influential white paper for the American Press Institute that explored the rise of participatory media.[4]

In 2005, Lasica published Darknet: Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation, a nonfiction work exploring copyright conflicts and the future of media.[5, 6, 7] It was republished as Whose Media Is It? in May 2025.[8]

Entrepreneurial and AI Work

Lasica is a serial entrepreneur who has founded several companies. His work in this area led to him being named one of the “Top 100 Influencers in Social Media” by Social Technology Review in 2012.[9] His early entrepreneurial efforts included:

• Ourmedia.org (March 2005): A grassroots media community and the Internet’s first free video hosting and sharing platform, preceding the launch of YouTube by six weeks.[10, 11, 12, 13] Lasica served as co-founder and executive director until December 2008.
  
• Socialmedia.biz: A global consulting firm providing social media strategy services for corporations with clients such as Etrade.
  
• Socialbrite.org: Consultancy and educational site helping nonprofits leverage social media for social change. Lasica launched Socialbrite in May 2009 as a learning center for nonprofits. Consultancy clients included San Francisco Goodwill.
  

Lasica expanded into several notable AI-driven startup ventures:

• Cruiseable / Agile Travel Group: A cruise‑matching discovery engine powered by AI. He continues to serve as CEO and co-founder.[14]
  
• Authors A.I.: A startup that helped pioneer the use of AI in long-form fiction. In 2020 the company released the first version of Marlowe, a proprietary AI editing tool that helps authors craft better novels based on bestseller patterns. He continues to serve as COO and co-founder.[15]
• BingeBooks: A book discovery platform founded by 105 bestselling authors, including Lasica.[16]

Fiction and Nonfiction Publications

Non-fiction:

• Darknet: Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation (Wiley, 2005), republished in May 2025 as Whose Media Is It? (Infinite Coast Press)
• The Mobile Generation: Global Transformations at the Cellular Level (The Aspen Institute, 2007)[17]
• Civic Engagement on the Move: How Mobile Media Can Serve the Public Good (The Aspen Institute, 2008)[18]
• Identity in the Age of Cloud Computing: The Next-generation Internet’s Impact on Business, Governance and Social Interaction (The Aspen Institute, 2009)[19]

Fiction:

• Shadow Operatives techno-thriller series:
  
  • Biohack (Infinite Coast Press, 2018) – Amazon #1 in five categories upon release
    
  • Catch and Kill (Infinite Coast Press, 2019)
    
  • Firefall (Infinite Coast Press, 2022)
    
• The Golden Relic (Infinite Coast Press, 2024)[20]

Public Speaking and Thought Leadership

Lasica has spoken extensively on media, tech, and social change including:

• At the United Nations in 2012 on how non-governmental organizations can use social media campaigns to combat global poverty.[21]
• Prestigious academic and event venues: Harvard (Berkman Center), Stanford, Cannes Film Festival, MIT, Princeton, SXSW Interactive (three times), Digital Hollywood (three times), Digital Storytelling Festival, Institute for the Future, Participatory Academy (Sweden), International Citizen Reporters’ Forum (Seoul), and many others.
  

He has also participated in three Aspen Institute roundtables and was a member of the Intel Insiders, contributing thought leadership on social media and global enterprise strategies.[22] Lasica was also named one of Silicon Valley’s Top 50 Influencers in 2008 by NowPublic.[23]

Media Presence

Lasica has been quoted or featured in top-tier media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, TechCrunch, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, NPR (All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, and On the Media), MSNBC, Le Monde, Foreign Policy Magazine, and La Nacion. More recently, he has appeared on author-related podcasts discussing the ethics of using AI in the creative writing process.[24, 25]

Additional Activities

• Photography: His photographs have appeared in hundreds of online publications and across numerous Wikipedia pages. Lasica’s photography is featured on his website.
  

Personal Life

Lasica resides in Dorado, Puerto Rico, with his wife Mary Louise. They have one son, Robert James Lasica (born April 21, 1999).

References

1. BestofIndie.com, Q&A with the author, July 27, 2020.
2. “News Site Watches the Watchdogs.” Wired. February 27, 1998.
3. “The Engadget Interview: Michael Malcolm, CEO and founder of Netgear.” Engadget.
   February 14, 2005.
4. J.D. Lasica, Editor, We the Media, archived 2017-07-31 at the Wayback Machine.
5. Lasica, Joseph Daniel (2005). Darknet: Hollywood’s war against the digital generation (Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-68334-6).
6.  Rogers, Michael (July 18, 2005). “Will Hollywood Lock-up Our Movies?” NBC News.
7.  Mitchell, Dan (Aug 20, 2005). “Picking the Media’s Digital Lock (book review).” The New York Times. p. C5.
8. J.D. Lasica’s Books page, jdlasica.com.
9. BestofIndie.com
10.  Kiss, Jemima (March 22, 2005). “Grassroots media site goes stellar from the start.” Journalism.co.uk.
11.  Outing, Steve (August 5, 2005). “Changes for OurMedia.org”. Poynter.
12.  Slocombe, Mike (March 22, 2005). “Interview With JD Lasica, Co-Founder, Ourmedia.org”. Digital-Lifestyles.
13. “Six years ago today, a video revolution was born.” Inside Social Media (March 21, 2011).
14. “Cruiseable Wants to Disrupt the Cruise Ship Sector, So Far Ignored By Others.” TechCrunch, March 25, 2015.
15. Authors A.I. team page, authors.ai.
16.  Boog, Jason (November 18, 2020). “Author-Funded BingeBooks Site Launches.” Publishers Weekly.
17.  J. D. Lasica, Rapporteur, “The Mobile Generation: Global Transformations at the Cellular Level (A Report of the Fifteenth Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, Washington, D.C.: Aspen Institute, February 2007).
18.  J. D. Lasica, Rapporteur, “Civic Engagement on the Move: How mobile media can serve the public good” (A Report of the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Mobile Media, Washington, D.C.: Aspen Institute, July 2008), archived 2015-04-08 at the Library of Congress Web Archives
19. J. D. Lasica, Rapporteur, “Identity in the Age of Cloud Computing: The next-generation Internet’s impact on business, governance and social interaction (A Report of the Seventeenth Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, Washington, D.C.: Aspen Institute, May 2009).
20. Amazon author page with bio and books, Amazon.com.
21. “How NGOs can use social media to combat poverty,” Socialbrite.org, Jan. 20, 2012.
22. “Year One: The Lessons of the Intel Insider Media Advisory Program,” siliconvalleywatcher.com.
23. “Top 50 Silicon Valley Influencers: Foremski at 28 Beats Tim O’Reilly and Top Journalists.” siliconvalleywatcher.com.
24. “Unlocking Bestseller Potential,” Brave New Bookshelf podcast, Oct. 23, 2025.
25. “The Ethics and Practicalities of AI in Publishing with JD Lasica and Alessandra Torre.” Wordslinger podcast, Dec. 11, 2025.