Its had its ups and downs, but its working better now that ever. We're using an always-on collaborative tool that removes all the friction: Sococo.com
Our project has taken 3 years and involved Engineers/managers in 4 states. We've interacted daily and in a ad-hoc manner. Now we're doing Agile development to some degree, and thats working too.
The article mentions Skype etc. We're way beyond that. Any conclusions may be stale.
It started being useful two years ago. We were our first users. Our productivity climbed, and our travel bill halved immediately.
Its nothing like Skype. No "phone call" model at all. You're instantly connected, can see everybody in your group at all times, you can tell who they're talking to, when they're done.
The map feature is more useful than it might seem. You can tell what your team members are doing, who they're talking to, whether the staff meeting has started, if Bob is in today etc.
I didn't call out my involvement this post, I've done that on half a dozen posts before, sorry.
Try it, its free. And only about 6Mb download (most of that graphics) because the app is essentially a 'dumb terminal' - the meat is on the server.