The word of the day is OData
"The Open Data Protocol (OData) is a Web protocol for querying and updating data that provides a way to unlock your data and free it from silos that exist in applications today. OData does this by applying and building upon Web technologies such as HTTP, Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub) and JSON to provide access to information from a variety of applications, services, and stores. The protocol emerged from experiences implementing AtomPub clients and servers in a variety of products over the past several years. OData is being used to expose and access information from a variety of sources including, but not limited to, relational databases, file systems, content management systems and traditional Web sites" retrieved from www.odata.org
Now apply that to your Silverlight learning as you introduce or mix Silverlight in with Dynamics CRM v4.0 or 2011!
"Silverlight 4 includes rich support for accessing web data either on the Internet or intranet via WCF Data Services. Formerly known as ADO.NET Data Services in Silverlight 3, WCF Data Services provides support for REST-based data access as well as support for the new Open Data Protocol (OData) format" retrieved from http://programming4.us/multimedia/2478.aspx
Fun Stuff!!