Electronic Communication With Co-Workers: Is it the only way?

Today most communication is done through some sort of electronic medium- phone (land line or cell), email, text messages, or fax. Telecommuting to work has become a popular alternative instead of coming to the office. Out of ten of my office type friends about half of them are offered the opportunity to work from home on a weekly basis. However, all of them are required to come to the office each week. I think this is significant. Lets look at the non-office type of worker- the trade person. Can the plumber, electrian, painter, welder use electronic communications instead of coming to the office/job site? No not usually but you would be surprised an the amount electronic communication that does exsist mainly for administrative purposes. Out of ten of my trade person friends about 90% use email or cell phones to communicate with the administrative staff each week. Not only does the type of job influence the use of collaborative work environments but individual personality and learning types have a role as well. I could explain a storyboard of a website to my boss at least three or four times and she still doesn't understand it until I develop a working protype and personally walk her through it in her office. She just can't make the connections from a static storyboard drawing to an interactive model. Then there is the a director in another department that insists on meeting to further discuss simple requests by email. It is not necessary but that is the director's preference. So is electronic communication with co-workers the only way- No. Will it ever be- Probably not. But we've come a long way baby, so only time will tell. Work can not be completed without some sort of in-person collaboration.