This dynamic is changing. For several of these: "guessing body language and tonality from written communication", "dealing with conference calls and web-based m

This dynamic is changing. For several of these: "guessing body language and tonality from written communication", "dealing with conference calls and web-based meetings", "building relationships without benefit of breaks and meals", "understanding the human terrain without benefit of gossip and the water cooler", "being noticed and recognized for who you really are by new people" And especially: "being included when you're "out of sight, out of mind"" A remote presence device can make a tremendous difference. We know this because we use them ourselves, with our own distributed team. We have people on three continents, in the same office, every day. One challenge we have (full disclosure, my company makes such a device) is how to explain the benefits, and how it changes life and work, without a live demo. Our research shows that it takes about 30 minutes of use before people start to see the differences. I'd be curious to know what the folks at Double Robotics, Anybots, VGo, and some of the other new companies have found as well.