Besides the introduction of the Client Object Models, SharePoint 2010 adds two other new additions to it's set Data Platform Technologies: the REST API and LINQ to SharePoint. Using the REST API, SharePoint data is exposed via on open standard, making
SharePoint data accessible in virtually any other system. LINQ to SharePoint on the other hand enables developers to build stronly typed LINQ queries to access their SharePoint data.
Speaker: Scot Hillier