Harold,
Your title captures an important insight; the knowledge economy allows significant distribution of nodes of knowledge, means of production, etc. To get the value of that, resources have to be distributed. If people can't figure out how to trust other people, all that value goes unachieved. Or, more likely, it accrues to other organizations or networks who HAVE figured out how to trust each other.

The temptation is to define output-based metrics so that work can still be monitored. But this isn't trust; and it's a poor proxy for it, being mainly a substittue for the old command and control.

the best trust comes from a shared sense of commitment, and a sense that others have our best interests at heart. The best ways to achieve this long distance are a combination of initial high-bandwidth meeting (aka face to face, wherever possible), followed by low-bandwidth but frequent communications.

I worked for a consulting firm in the 90s which operated globally, but with only a few offices; hundreds of people worked all over the US, but from their homes and from client sites. The firm had enormous connections, trust and glue; all accomplished not by offices, but by a strong combination of voicemail, email, corporate culture, and the occasional group meeting.