I work with a design organization spread across three continents. We use email (doesn’t work that well), PowerPoint and Flash to communicate design concepts (like taking a whole day to say “hello”), Lotus Notes applications (good for recording forever, bad for anything in the same decade you’re inhabiting), and various custom software tools that are always more trouble than they’re worth. We’ve had success with two things: the Boeing 777 (very effective, but very time consuming and expensive in several senses) and just recently a high-definition videoconferencing system that consumes a frightening amount of bandwidth, but really works. In fact, it’s astonishing how well it works. Unfortunately it’s also astonishing how much it costs.