A crucial observation Ron, thanks. The pendulum is definitely swinging more towards ether than air given the current economic climate. And the degree to which every process has been geographically distributed in its component parts can make face-to-face interaction with entire teams a thing of the past.

However, there’s nothing like having lunch or just grabbing a coffee with someone to bring home the “added value” of the “get together”.

The trick is to understand the tools and times when online communication, interaction or “use” makes sense (functionally and economically). And to also understand and manage the inherent trade-offs.

At Xuropa (www.xuropa.com) we’re building an online environment to augment many meetings and to eliminate some.

- James