If you have to do "extra work to involve remote people" you don't have a distributed team. Adding remote members to an on-site team that works like an on-site t

If you have to do "extra work to involve remote people" you don't have a distributed team. Adding remote members to an on-site team that works like an on-site team seems unworkable in my opinion. You can have remote developers that get assigned work like a contractor, but IMHO a remote developer can never truly be part of a team that functions like an on-site team. Now, a truly distributed team is a beautiful thing and can in my experience outperform an on-site functioning team. I've worked on highly performing distributed teams that only saw each other in person once or twice a year. When a distributed team has a conference call, everyone generally calls in individually from their own phone/skype, even if some are in the same room. A distributed team working in an office uses the office more as a private co-working space. The key tool in every distributed team I've ever worked on is chat, usually IRC. The great thing about chat is that it's asymmetric communication, but targeted and instant unlike email. In a distributed team, I can throw out a question on irc without worrying about interrupting anyone or throwing someone out of the zone by tapping them on the shoulder. A lot of non blocking discussion happens throughout the day that prevents having official meetings. If a company genuinely wants to move from functioning as an on-site team to functioning as a distributed team, I'd suggest everyone on site rotate taking a week and working remotely, especially management! It can't feel like you are doing extra work for the remote members, but that you are changing your team to work in a distributed manner for the benefit of everyone.