What would stop remove worker from explaining, questioning and interacting remotely? There is Skype, there are good screen sharing tools.
Being included when you're "out of sight, out of mind" -- that's cultural issue. When you are one click away in Skype - you are more reachable than on-site co-worker 2 cubicles down the hall.
I agree about the advantage of breaks/meals/water cooler/gym /walks around the office etc.
That could be simulated online though.
I think online gaming communities are ahead in online socialization, so we can learn some tricks from them.
My team does attempt to simulate this online, at least w/ one of our remote folks.
We occasionally have "game break" on Fridays, where the team gets together for an hour to play a board game or video game (popular favorites have been The Resistance and Mario Kart). When one of our teammates moved to Texas (we're in NY), we started Skyping him in for games of The Resistance (it's sort of like Mafia, but with cards). Since it's a card game, we had to find some interesting workarounds - we use http://www.adoodle.org/ for anonymous votes in the game (instead of cards), and hold up his role card to the screen w/out looking at it so he knows if he's a spy or not.
It's been a lot of fun, and a great way to stay connected w/ teammates outside the office. At some point, I'd like to write a Skype bot that handles all the vote-counting and card dealing, but our little hacky version of the game has worked pretty well so far.
Being included when you're "out of sight, out of mind" -- that's cultural issue. When you are one click away in Skype - you are more reachable than on-site co-worker 2 cubicles down the hall.
I agree about the advantage of breaks/meals/water cooler/gym /walks around the office etc. That could be simulated online though.
I think online gaming communities are ahead in online socialization, so we can learn some tricks from them.