The office I work in functions almost as if we were remote. We communicate through real-time IM, a few IRC channels, our bug tracker, as well as email, of course, and some custom tools for monitoring the git activity of each team member. We also get daily email reports of all git activity, and there are weekly status emails from the CEO and/or CTO wherein they effectively brag about the accomplishments of the employees that week.

There are frequent days, in fact, when I have no communication at all with other team members about development topics except over the computer. If we need to talk in person about a design decision, it's frequent to schedule the meeting even if it's just going to be 10 minutes.