Abstract: A method of obtaining real-time OPC (OLE for Process Control) data from industrial control systems, financial data and other sources in a uniform and generic manner without extensive programming binds the data to properties on user interface components in Microsoft .NET Windows and Silverlight applications. This is accomplished using a custom .NET Binding class (Generic Binding) with additional properties and a set of predefined interfaces that abstract the source of the data, and the data items being bound to allowing a software application to connect to a variety of real time data sources, query available items for binding, and connect to those items regardless of the source of the underlying data and the communication protocol used to provide the data. In addition, the binding mechanism uses ‘aliases’ in the descriptions of the data items being bound to, allowing a binding to seemly change the underlying object changing the data without having to modify, change or recreate the binding to the data.