A lot has changed in the last few years-- with modern tools (Skype, Google Hangouts, IRC, GotoMeeting), it is possible to not only almost entirely replicate being co-located, but to even enhance productivity by spinning out ad-hoc co-located teams to solve individual problems.
The evidence from folk who study this seems to differ from this.
The world is full of anecdotes about how much better things are with the newer technologies - yet I can very little evidence that this is true. I know I'm really good at fooling myself about my own productivity. I don't imagine I'm unique there ;-)
And my personal anecdotal experiences over the years (including recent ones ;-) is that you can really ramp up productivity by getting everybody on a distributed team in one place. Even when everybody is normally skyping / IMing / whatever.
The evidence from folk who study this seems to differ from this.
The world is full of anecdotes about how much better things are with the newer technologies - yet I can very little evidence that this is true. I know I'm really good at fooling myself about my own productivity. I don't imagine I'm unique there ;-)
And my personal anecdotal experiences over the years (including recent ones ;-) is that you can really ramp up productivity by getting everybody on a distributed team in one place. Even when everybody is normally skyping / IMing / whatever.