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Ugh. The conference call, web meeting, google hangout, whatever technology you want to use, you spend 15 minutes on "can everybody see me" "can everybody hear me" "I can't hear you" "can everyone please mute their phone" "I can't see the slides" I mean it's almost always a fiasco. I can't stand it.

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Again, there are integrated 'virtual office' products that attack exactly this issue.

I do a daily standup with 10-15 people, all remote. Those issues are totally absent. We get started within 60 seconds of the desired time. We finish on time. The entire time is spent on issues.

The product we use is the one we build - Sococo Teamspace. We're a small startup made up of mostly Engineers who felt the pain you mention. We're eat our own dogfood, so issues like that are the top of our list.

http://www.sococo.com

This is a lot more of a problem for teams that are not used to working remotely. Our entire team of 38 people are remote in 9 different countries and we have voice meetings on Skype every day. It's not an issue.

However I do notice exactly what you are talking about every time we conduct a meeting with a new person who is not in the practice of constant remote communication.

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