The term I have bandying about recently is "pop-up communities" to explain the power of Zula. I will not use this post to go into the details of current and planned features and functionaity of Zula (check out our website and service itself for that). But I do want to walk through what I mean by pop-up community and how it resembles a Sukka (the "huts" Jews built in desert during their 40 years of wandering just after leaving Egypt). (the sukka metaphor comes from David Hirsch of Metamorphic Ventures -- not sure if David will invest but he already gave us some pearls of wisdom, so he is part of the Zula story now).
And then recently, sitting with the wonderful Mort Meyerson (who has invested in Zula) we took the metaphor to an even higher level -- the ultimate sukka, which is the mishkan.
But back to the concept of pop-up community -- what do I mean by that? (don't worry, weave back in Sukka and Mishkan).
Over the past few years the term "pop-up store" has been trendy in retail (I fist came across in NY but now has spread all over the world). A pop-up store is one which pops up in an available space but with the intention from the start that it might be for only a limited time, whether that be a few days, weeks or months. The reasons behind the temporal nature could include excess inventory, seasonality, or simply testing the waters before committing to a long term lease. And there have been many cases of such successes that the temporary becomes permanent.
The same can be said for many of our work teams these days. As SMBs (small and medium sized businesses) dominate (most new jobs are created by SMBs) and corporations become more fluid, ad-hoc team formation is becoming the norm, rather the exception.
Twenty years ago (and to some degree still today) it was possible to communicate only with people who worked for the same corporation, in technical terms "behind the firewall." Today, with the rise of the consultant and the project based approach, teams tackling an issue on behalf of GE or GM more likely than not will include members who do NOT carry a company card, and are not credentialed to use the company's domain based tools.
Over the past years we have also seen the acceptance of outsourcing, offshoring, and cross company collaboration at levels unimaginable twenty years ago.
The Mishkan, or the tabernacle, was the first ritual space created by the Jewish people in the desert after Moses came down from Mt Sinai. According the the Bible, very clear and detailed instructions were given as to the construction of the Mishkan. But the Mishkan was not a permanent structure -- in fact a lot of the detail involved how to put up and breakdown the Mishkan so it could be carried along in the Journey (and my tribe, the Levites, were tasked with being the Mishkan porters while the Jewish people marched -- and we were responsible for the construction and breakdown...interesting that I should be the co-founder and CEO of Zula).
The essential nature of the Mishkan was that of a non-permanent structure...it was intended to be part of the Journey.
When the Jewish people reach the promised land the mishkan continued to move around...until King Solomon (Shlomo) builds the first permanent structure, the first "Temple" (or Holy House). It could be said everything went down-hill from there. According to many commentators (and my own reading) the whole notion of creating a monarchy, a formal structure, was itself not seen by God as an overly positive move.
The corporation of the 20th Century was the Western world's version of the Temple -- a seemingly permanent entity that provided a focal point for much of the working class. But much like the temple of old, permanence is fleeting. No building or entity is too big to fall.
And in the 21st century we are retuning to much more fluid ways of work -- small teams coming together, setting up and breaking down structures. The Cloud is our desert -- it is the backdrop for our journeys.
Over the coming months I will continue to develop this concept, and touch more on how the true liberation is one in which we recognize the temporal nature of all realities, we should never feel servants to any regime be it a corporation or a monarchy.
Zula is doing its' part to allow people to communicate in ways that don't respect the old structures. Where will this journey take us? Come along with us and let's find out together. See you in Zula.
