It was initially created by Apple Computer in 1992 after Microsoft approached Apple asking for input on a proposed OLE II project. Apple reviewed the crude prototype and document and returned a list of problems they saw with the design. Microsoft wasn't interested so Apple decided for competitive reasons that it should have an alternative and decided to create OpenDoc.
Initially it was code named "Exemplar", then "Jedi" and "Amber" before being released under the name OpenDoc. The development team realized in mid-1992 that an industry coalition was needed and created the Component Integration Laboratories with IBM and WordPerfect. but in 1996 it was adopted by the Object Management Group.
Kurt Piersol from Apple Computer was the most well known of the architects of OpenDoc, but Jed Harris (later president of CILabs) was just as critical to the early designs.
OpenDoc was initially released to run under Mac OS System 7.5 to provide an document based, rather than application based, computing experience. The WAV word processor was a semi-successful OpenDoc word processor; the CyberDog web browser was created by Apple as an OpenDoc browser; the Nisus Writer software by Nisus incorporated OpenDoc.
From IBM involvement in Taligent, there was an implementation of OpenDoc in OS/2 Warp 4.
OpenDoc had several hundred developers signed up, but the timing was poor. Apple was losing money, Java, JavaBeans and web-based applications were all being hyped as the next new way of building applications. So, it was scrapped, Steve Jobs noting that they "put a bullet through [OpenDoc's] head", and the entire team was laid off in a big reduction in force in March 1997.