Matt Healy, Google+

Foursquare's engineering office in San Francisco has just 20 out of the company's 100 employees. But rather than working as an autonomous unit, AllThingsD's Liz Gannes writes today, the teams are connected by a constant video feed. Called "The Portal," the feed is powered by Cisco meeting software and allows the satellite office engineers to have stand-up meetings with their New York co-workers throughout the day. The Portal was installed in July and each office can control the other's cameras.

"Code doesn't care where it's written," San Francisco site lead Benjy Weinberger told ATD.

Brotherly, or Big Brotherly? You be the judge! But Foursquare employees tend to like it. "Both offices are equipped with video streams we use for company meetings and stand ups. It’s humbling and inspiring to come in every morning and see their side of the states still in shadows," wrote New York-based Foursquare designer Courtney Christopher on her Tumblr back in October. The only thing we're still wondering after Ms. Gannes's excellent story about The Portal: can you check in?