I've tried both, and for coding-related stuff, I really dislike phone (or Skype), ranking it just about the worst possible option. I'd much rather IRC or IM, where at least we can exchange code and links and there's a bit of a scrollback buffer.
Twitter and FB status messages I put in a different category, because it's difficult to have a proper conversation with them. It's pretty easy to have a proper conversation on IRC, though, at least if all parties are text-chat-fluent.
There are a bunch of collaborative text editing web sites where two or more people can work on the same document.
I've used them for technical phone interviews and they work well. Combine that with phone and skype and you can make things happen (of course it's hard to run code in this).
Perhaps a screen sharing / webex approach would work in the case where you really need to run code together.
I've set up a private server and it's really nice. First of all you can record voice conversations. Secondly it offers chat between users and between channels.
I find that voice communication is really effective, but having the ability to say "Hold on, let me send you this link!" is also crucial.
I hadn't considered the coding situation, but you're right: coding is something where you need a visual reference to make sure that you're both on the right page.
But what about this compromise: Skype voice conversation + skype text-chat for showing each other code snippets.
That can work better than just Skype, but I guess I don't generally see the benefit. As long as all parties are chat-fluent (I've worked with some people who aren't, and then it can be painful, like IMing with my parents), I find IRC discussions better than Skype. Especially true if three or four people are participating; conference calls are much harder to demultiplex, at least for me, with all this time wasted on people accidentally speaking over other people, asking for something to be repeated, etc., etc. And with text, you can grep the logs, too!
> But what about this compromise: Skype voice conversation + skype text-chat for showing each other code snippets.
I've been using this combination for a few weeks now, working on a development project with a partner who is ~1000 miles away. Besides voice and text, Skype also has screen sharing. All three parts have become essential to how we work.
At my last firm we could share our screen just by giving someone a hyperlink over IM. Sometimes this was really valuable... for coding issues or support issues. Skype has this too, people should use it more.
Twitter and FB status messages I put in a different category, because it's difficult to have a proper conversation with them. It's pretty easy to have a proper conversation on IRC, though, at least if all parties are text-chat-fluent.