This white paper is published by the ODF Alliance.

This Linux Journal article by Kamran Husain highlights the basic structure of ODF files, and some internals of the underlying XML files and shows how to use Python to read the contents to perform a simple search for keywords. The code also can be the basis for more advanced operations. In the spirit of openness, open-source software is used to read the ODF files, which in this case are Python and the OpenOffice.org package.

The introductory white paper "Open by Design - The Advantages of the OpenDocument Format (ODF)" has been published by the OASIS OpenDocument Format Adoption TC. The document can be found here.

by Dmitri Popov, Linux Magazine

This cover story provides an introduction to OpenDocument and the applications that support the format. It discusses ODF compatibility, exploring how well word processors like AbiWord, Kword, and Writely handle an ODT document created in OpenOffice. The article also demonstrates an ODF add-in for opening an ODF file in Microsoft Word.

This ROADMAP – and the best practices and recommendations it provides – represents

This article by Erwin Tenhumberg of Sun Microsystems provides a brief introduction to OpenDocument, its history, benefits of use, and available tools.

This IBM Developerworks tutorial from Jonathan Levin, shows you how to use OpenOffice's import/export filters
to open your XML data as though it's just a plain document. From there,
users can edit the document much more naturally and then save it back
to its native format. You can also use this feature to easily turn your
documents into XML data.

This monograph was written for those involved in OpenDocument format development, support and promotion and, more generally, for those interested in Open Standards and the Open Source movement, IT professionals and even non-specialised readers. The article was guest edited by Jesús Tramullas-Saz, Piedad Garrido-Picazo and Marco Fioretti.