Darren was over in Perth and Adelaide this week talking to user group members about IBF (Information Bridge Framework). I'm looking forward to catching the presentation myself. I missed it when he did it in Canberra but I've had an opportunity to look over his shoulder while he has been working on it. Tooling aside, it kind of turns the application development model on its head because you start to use your Office suite as an interface to all your enterprise data.
The idea is that you wrap your enterprise data sources in web-services and integrate those services into a unified meta-data model that is exposed via IBF. Client-side components which integrate into your office application as things like research panes and smart tags provide the visual elements. Darren's actually got some spare time in Sydney and Melbourne so if your organisation is looking for innovative ways of accessing your corporate data then why not get in contact with him via his blog.