Awareness tools for global teams

Awareness seems to be one of the crucial factors to coordinate global teams - I have just come across a series of tools which seem promising in this context. Anita Sarma from the University of California is working on a variety of those tools, for example world view: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~asarma/research.shtml#world

How can those tools help? One assumption is that once you are aware where your colleauges are and what they are doing, you might perform better...I am quite convinced that awareness tools can support coordination and communication but I think that one aspect is ignored: CULTURE again...it is obviously helpful to visualize locations and work items but it should be connected to the meaning of location and work items - how do people handle tasks, what are the differences in working culture? In my opinion, those tools will create much more impact once they include cultural factors!