Gina Trapani, in a fantastic article in Macworld, gives a behind-the-scenes look on how the lifehacker team of editors work seamlessly, even though, they are so geographically dispersed. I think they have the framwork just right. A gist of the tools they use:
- Campfire for chat
- Gmail for email
- Gcalendar for calendaring
- Google Docs for collaboration
- Mediawiki for documentation
- Backpack for Project Management
- Del.icio.us for bookmarking
Read the full article here.
While at it, you should also look up The Lifehacker Editors’ Favorite Software and Hardware.