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NBCSports.com contributor Rob Bolton analyzes the top contenders, those in the running, and the long shots for the British Open, to be played at Royal St.

NBCSports.com contributor Rob Bolton analyzes the top contenders, those in the running, and the long shots for the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club.

%excerpt% See more here: Walking the Walk (Running the Run, Etc.)

By the end of this year, around a billion people across the globe will be mobile workers, according to IDC, a global market research firm. As virtual work becomes more accessible to small businesses on a tighter budget, some CEOs and entrepreneurs are beginning to recognize that a virtual sales force not only can cuts down on costs, but can also add a competitive advantage for the company. "As organizations become more geographically distributed, they're going to try to access the best talent wherever they may be," says Richard Lepsinger President of OnPoint Consulting, a virtual consulting company based in New York, and co-author of Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance

IBM announced the first batch of cities this week awarded grants as part of the company's three-year, $50 million Smarter Cities Challenge . The recipients --including New Orleans, Newark, Rio de Janeiro, and Jakarta--are diverse, to say the least. So how did they end up with IBM's attention, and what happens now?