I can think of examples where it works well to be distributed and ones where it doesn't. PostgreSQL is a very distributed development group. There are small cl

I can think of examples where it works well to be distributed and ones where it doesn't. PostgreSQL is a very distributed development group. There are small clusters of developers in many places throughout the world, but even then generally don't gather more than once per month. Sure, there are plenty of user groups and conferences, but it's not an every-week kind of thing. And the postgres project really delivers. A strong release once per year with a variety of features; balanced between new innovations, performance, robustness, manageability, etc. It's hard to beat that. I think the worst situation to be in is where you have very strong clusters and a few satellite developers or groups of developers. What happens is that the satellite developers are simply out of the loop, and don't even know what decisions are being made. Either delegate components very clearly between remote groups, or go all distributed, or completely local.