Office politics and an alarming rise in workplace bullying (many of which are non-verbal, negative behaviors used to intimidate others) can be taken completely out of the equation . . so can title or status. The new hire just might have the best ideas.

You will find the best talent from a diversified background – you’ve attracted the best talent and client base from around the world. Parents of young children can continue to support their family, from home. I believe it IS the future of work . . we need to embrace it.

Yes, that’s a lot of 0s in there, maybe not enough?

This is a great article and of course that the comments that you have here are great as well.
I also believe that is the future of work and let me tell you this, as you say, it is not evenly distributed yet, but sometimes also people are reluctant to make that change.

I recently resigned from an office job to dedicate my full time to an online business, many thought that I was crazy but this is a reality that is happening right now and right here.

I now feel privileged to be able to share more time with my family and at home because of this, it has not been easy all the time, but every change comes with some challenges.

Thanks for sharing such great piece of content, I’m about to read the article at Forbes.
Best Regards,
Jose Luis Lozano

Very cool! Thank you for sharing.

http://www.pixelmonkey.org/2012/05/14/distributed-teams

In it, I drew the distinction between “horizontally scaled” teams, in which physical offices are connected to remote workers via satellite (home or commercial) offices, and “fully distributed” teams where, as you said, “the creative center and soul of the organization on the internet, and not in an office.”

At Parse.ly, we’re only a couple years old but have been operating on the distributed team model, with ~13 fully distributed employees, and it’s working well. Always glad to hear stories about how Automattic has scaled it to 10X our size.

And, likewise, we blow some of our office space savings on camaraderie-building retreats; our most recent one was in New York, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/amontalenti/sets/72157629938809778/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/amontalenti/sets/72157630060466656/

The Internet has created massive freedom in workstyle in a ton of areas, but until robot technology advances significantly, there will still be location-bound jobs. At the very least, who will build and maintain the telecommunications infrastructure?

Furthermore, there are benefits to human interaction that cannot be described in terms of money or efficiency. I like interacting with cashiers, waiters, etc.

The Internet is a great solution to a lot of problems, but not a solution for everything — especially non-problems.

Thank you for clarifying that statement in Forbes. When I first read that last sentence in the original article, I was puzzled as to whether it was the writer’s opinion or an actual statement that you or Toni Schneider made. It’s good to know that Automattic made a conscious choice to have a distributed workforce and, as Phil Black pointed out, to hire world-class talent and compensate them above and beyond what a traditional company would be able to offer.

I’m truly impressed with Automattic and I hope to have a chance to contribute to your growth in the future.

I wish Automattic was just as independent and as unique as FB or G+, w.r.t icons and buttons.

Automattic or WP should use G+ ()

In fact the reverse is happening from my friends, they are transitioning out of the office into their own business being run online.

Phil Black
On Board of Directors for Automattic

Hope the great meetup will receive coverage on Ma.tt and other sites.