I found that to be irritating too... most people at most meetings owuld just dial in from their desks. Obviously this is a clue that the meeting should likely not be held at all... or that it's too long (or the right people weren't invited in the first place). Meetings are really most effective when the people are face to face and everyone is actively participating.

That being said, most meetings are more for show then they are for productive brainstorming... in otherwords PR "yes I'm doing my job... see I'm holding meetings to let everyone know just how important I am to the organisation!"

I have been on distributed teams for around 5 years... Denver, both US coasts, Canada, Brazil, UK, India, Australia... it makes for interesting meeting times. It is very fun too! I got good at con calls, NetMeeting, WebEx, and the old standbys of email and IM.

For one account I traveled to sunny CA for "War Room week" at the beginning of a test cycle. I thought it was important to be there in person to facilitate the tester/developer/BA interaction. As it turned out, most of the developers attended the "war room" from their desks 30' away! That bothered me at first, but then I realized that they could get more done, I could get more done, and they were just a short stroll away. Plus, when I went home we already had good distance communication in place.

It did not reduce my productivity to work from home. My company then decided that we had to BE in the office 3 days a week! (Yup... just the opposite of your friend's company!) They said that it was because we would miss all of the symbiosis that occurs around the water cooler and coffee station... well... I occasionally said hi to someone I knew from previous gigs, I often nodded my head and said G'Day! to 1 or 2 people a day... and that only cost me a 25 min drive 6 times a week... hummm... I agree Greentheo... the commute is a lot better at home!