Those of you who have attended Sree Sreenivasan's (@sree) classes have heard him say, "When the plane lands in the Hudson, it's too late to figure out Twitter." He uses that to mean the time to figure out new and emerging social media tools is when you don't need them, not when news breaks. Our next guest is someone who helped show many journalists the power of social media when, it turns out, a plane did land in the Hudson.

Meet JANIS KRUMS (@jkrums), a non-journalist who created the most widely-seen tweet and photo of 2009. His January 15, 2009, tweet and photo read: "There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy."

He beat the world's biggest news organizations to a major story taking place in their own backyard and helped change the perception (in many people's minds) of the value of Twitter and similar services. He'll talk about what happened that day, how the media covered the story (and him) and his thoughts on how journalists can better use such services.

Janis lives in Florida, but is speaking at the J-school for a second time; he was last here when he won the 2010 Shorty Award for Real-Time Photo of the Year. He joins us a week before the third anniversary of the crash.

See the photo:
http://twitpic.com/135xa

See @Sree's article on lessons he learned from what @JKrums went through: http://bit.ly/dnakrums

We will also be joined by folks from @Rawporter, a startup that helps connect citizen journalists with media orgs.

See details and RSVP at http://bit.ly/cjkrums

SAMPLE TWEET: TALK: @JKrums, "Miracle on the Hudson" photo-tweeter, speaks @ColumbiaJourn, Wed, 4-5p: http://j.mp/y6kJDl track via #cjkrums #cuj12

o o o o o

South Asian Journalists Association
Columbia Journalism School
CUNY Journalism School
Women for Afghan Women
Arab & Middle East Journalists Association
are all coming together to present…

FARIBA NAWA, distinguished Afghan-American journalist and author of the highly-acclaimed book, "Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman’s Journey Through Afghanistan." The book is the first to offer a revealing look inside men's and women’s lives involved in Afghanistan’s drug trade. From the farmer to the smuggler and child bride, Nawa discovers the underworld of the multi-billion dollar narcotics industry while she revisits her own family’s deep roots to the land. (see blurb below from Khaled Hosseini, author of "The Kite Runner")

Friday, Jan 6, 2012
5-6:30 pm
Columbia Journalism School
Stabile Student Center, lobby floor one flight up from the lobby
116th Street & Broadway (#1 subway to 116th St stop)

No charge; RSVP: dos.events.rsvp@gmail.com
or RSVP via Twitter: http://bit.ly/cujnawa

Please join us if you can.

FROM FARIBANAWA.COM: Fariba Nawa, an award-winning Afghan-American journalist, covers a range of issues and specializes in immigrant and Muslim communities in the United States and abroad. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area but has traveled extensively to the Middle East and South Asia. She lived and reported from Afghanistan from 2002 to 2007, and witnessed the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and al Qaeda. She has also reported from Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, and Germany. She has a master’s in Middle Eastern studies and journalism. Her work has appeared in the Sunday Times of London, Newsday, Mother Jones, The Village Voice, The Christian Science Monitor and numerous other publications. She also reports for radio, including National Public Radio (NPR) and is the author of the groundbreaking report, Afghanistan, Inc., and a contributing writer in the upcoming book Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands, to be published in spring 2012 by Harvard University Press. Her essays have also been published in two other books, March to War and Women for Afghan Women. A frequent speaker on Middle East and South Asian issues, she has participated in talks at the World Affairs Council, major universities, and has been interviewed by prominent television and radio networks.

Her own book Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman’s Journey Through Afghanistan, a mix of memoir and reportage about the drug trade in Afghanistan, (HarperColllins, November 2011) is on sale at http://amzn.to/t4ym5x and other online stores.

She is available for interviews and talks; please contact her publicist Heidi Metcalfe, heidi.metcalfe@harpercollins.com

“An insightful and informative look at the global challenge of Afghan drug trade. Fariba Nawa weaves her personal story of reconnecting with her homeland after 9/11 with a very engaging narrative that chronicles Afghanistan’s dangerous descent into opium trafficking, its impact on the U.S. campaign, and most revealingly, how the drug trade has damaged the lives of ordinary Afghan people.” — Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

  SAMPLE TWEET: Meet @FaribaNawa, Afghan-Am journo author of major book
  about Afghanistan, Fri 5pm @ColumbiaJourn: http://bit.ly/cujnawa
  #cjnawa #cuj12