Coffee Break: Startup Branding, Apple and the American Middle Class, Killing Hollywood, Textbooks and the Future of education

We’ve been reading some great stuff at Pravda Media Group that you might enjoy as well. So, pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit down, and get your read on — you’ll feel more productive than if you’re just trawling Facebook.

Startup Branding: A Practical Guide for Entrepreneurshttp://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/76648/Startup-Branding-A-Practical-Guide-for-Entrepreneurs.aspx

This is a fantastic post by Mike Troiano about branding, and why startups should invest more time and clarify the emotional value of their brand.

Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Classhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html

New York Times offers a fascinating look at the changes in economics and manufacturing which have caused America to lose almost all its manufacturing labor and have severely damaged America’s middle class.

Killing Hollywood Will Require Learning Hollywood’s Gamehttp://pandodaily.com/2012/01/20/killing-hollywood-will-require-learning-hollywoods-game/

With the SOPA fiasco, Y Combinator’s Paul Graham wrote an interesting piece Just kill Hollywood. The point of his post is that it’s not piracy that will kill the movie business, instead it’s different forms of entertainment that will emerge in the upcoming years and gobble up the old paradigm. Lacy claims that in order to actually “kill” or compete with Hollywood, start-ups need to learn their game and let go of the mindset that eyeballs equal quality.

Why textbooks of the future are not books

http://gigaom.com/apple/why-textbooks-of-the-future-are-not-books

Erica Ogg wrote a post about Apple’s new foray into education with textbooks. (rightfully!) claims that these new textbooks are not books at all, but are instead interactive learning experiences: You have text, of course, but you can drag in image galleries, embed videos, 3D models, presentations and slideshows. You can touch and swipe and watch instead of just reading and taking notes.