Managing distance

I've been retained at home with a food intoxication for a couple of days.

Has I was still able to work, I've been trying the remote work paradigm. This are my first impressions:

Positive

• much lesser interruptions - I could actually clean up my inbox :)
  

Negative

• communication over teleconference or IM is hardly a substitute for direct contact
• seriously missed the human contact - I frequently ended up over asking for project status!
  

Conclusion

I don't remember where I got it, but somewhere I read something like "there's a distance limit to manage teams, and this limit is about 30 feet". Ok, now seriously, this limit was for a specific type of team (a team developing a new product, if I remember it correctly).

For over 30 feet, big cultural changes must happen...