Will an LCD wall improve remote working?

I’ve remote worked on and off since around 2005 and to be honest not much has changed or improved in that time period.  I’m a web developer and the main tool of the trade is Skype – the main improvement of this has been screen-sharing which is an invaluable tool when working with (maximum – on a free account at least) one other developer. Bookkeeping has also become easier with great web app packages like freeagent.  But there are no other tools out there that have arrived and improved my remote-working life.

This is not a complaint, rather a statement – I’m still pretty amazed that I can live in a quiet seaside town and hold down a career working for remote agencies and companies.  We even bootstrapped a start-up with remote founders and this has worked really, really well but I still miss the magic that happens when you meet real humans in person.

I choose to not view my co-workers in a video call because currently I don’t think it adds anything to the working experience – but maybe my view of this will change when video technology shows you a 180 degree view and bandwidth catches up to allow large, high resolution transmission – ie: an LCD wall.

In ten years time when we can have this affordable LCD wall installed in our home office – I wonder if remote work will be comparable (in terms of creativity, communication and fun) to actually being with your co-workers in person?

Photo credit: http://dobpler.com/sandnes.html - check it out, it’s a pretty nice project