This is the first post out of a series of blog posts that I'm going to publish in preparation for my TechEd session next month in Dubai: this one is in relation to my oData session ‘Open Data for the Open Web’.

The timing couldn't be more perfect. I came up with an idea that I'm going to cover oData from the web trend angle - that the web is becoming more and more open which includes the sharing of Data not just webpages.

Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, at Strata Conference went on to say that Data is going to be the next big thing. He stated that during the IBM days hardware was the source of lock in, then Microsoft changes the game. So what's next? What happen when software becomes a commodity?

He argues that the next big movement is towards Data. With all the services that we consume at our finger tip : we can't help to pick and choose the services we use based on how rich is the data behind the service: either it be maps, social graphs, quality of photos etc.

Data is going to be the next ’¦or already is’¦ the BIG thing.

And we have to be prepared for it!