From Wikipedia:

The OpenDocument format (ODF), short for the OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications, is an open document file format for saving and exchanging editable office documents such as text documents (including memos, reports, and books), spreadsheets, databases, charts, and presentations. This standard was developed by the OASIS industry consortium, based upon the XML-based file format originally created by OpenOffice.org, and ODF was approved as an OASIS standard on May 1, 2005. A draft for the ISO ISO/IEC 26300 was approved on May 3, 2006.

Very cool. You can read more about the approval on Andy Updegrove’s blog. As for OpenDocument itself, you can read the Wikipedia article to learn more about it. It’s the file format used by OpenOffice.org. Be sure to check out the comparison between ODF and Microsoft’s OpenXML. (I really like the fact that ODF is built on existing technologies — SVG, MathML, Dublin Core, XLink, etc. — and it doesn’t really surprise me that Microsoft is trying to re-invent the wheel.) Finally, Docvert is a web app that will convert Word files to ODF for you.

Technorati Tags: OpenDocument, OpenXML, OpenOffice, SVG, MathML, Dublin Core, XLink