Elance introduces a suite of productivity applications to promote efficiency (elance.com)

I've done a lot of work on Elance, oDesk, and Guru as an employer. Generally, the quality of talent is very hit-or-miss, but it's nice to see that they are actively encouraging efficient resource management. Unfortunately, I think it's too little too late. Offering video conferencing and integration with codesion and join.me will certainly help reduce communication difficulties, but people have been doing this offsite since the beginning. The problem is still successfully managing a team of people with little to no intellectual investment or interest in your project.