diff --git a/README b/README index 951ae05573..fb2033862c 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -10,26 +10,28 @@ Friendika is a web application for managing social communications. Some would call it a "social network" or "distributed social network". We think -both terms have been over-used and don't really apply - though Friendika can -also fill those roles. +both terms have been over-used, and don't adequately describe Friendika's +capabilities - though Friendika can also fill those roles. At its essence, Friendika is a web application which can monitor various -information streams, and also let you participate in online conversations with -friends and associates using a variety of network protocols. +information and social activity streams, and which also lets you participate +in online conversations with friends and associates, using a variety of network +protocols. These are combined into an overview of your various communications +and activities - regardless of network origin. Friendika also manages your personal profiles and photo albums and lets -you tailor either of these to specific audiences. Your communications can be -either open and public, or closed and private. You can easily create "groups" -of contacts with which you can partition your conversations into social -circles. +you securely present each of these to specific audiences. Your communications +can be either open and public, or closed and private. You can easily create +"groups" of contacts with which you can partition your conversations into +private social circles, and which cannot be seen outside the circle. Friendika is decentralised. Any account on any Friendika server can connect -with any other Friendika account on any other server. You can also connect to -friends on Status.Net and other federated social web services (e.g. identi.ca, -GNU-Social, etc.). +with any account on any other Friendika server. You can also connect to and +interact directly with friends on Status.Net and other federated social web +services (e.g. identi.ca, GNU-Social, etc.). - Outgoing communications can be directed at these networks and/or your -existing accounts on Facebook and Twitter - and even delivered to email + Outgoing communications can be directed at these networks and also +existing accounts on Facebook and Twitter - or even delivered to email contacts. Incoming data streams aren't limited to traditional social networks. @@ -40,21 +42,28 @@ Wordpress blogs, news services, and other websites. Over time we will try to build two-way bridges to many of these services so that you can freely interact in both directions with anybody who allows it. - Communications between supported networks are private and encrypted, -using military grade encryption - and require mutual authentication of servers -before any data is exchanged. + Communications between Friendika servers are private and encrypted, +using military grade encryption - and require mutual identity provenance +before any data is exchanged. These same crypto mechanisms provide remote +password-less authentication; allowing you to post to profiles and view private +photo collections on other servers - without encountering any login and/or +authorisation dialogues when visiting these sites. - Friendika has no boundaries and no central ownership. Anybody with a -commodity PHP/MySQL web server can provide a membership hub, and each -individual server can then support several thousand participating members -- each with their own unique communication and privacy needs. + Friendika has no boundaries and no central ownership of the data generated +within the network. Anybody with a commodity PHP/MySQL web server or hosting +account can provide a server, and each individual server can then support +up to several thousand participating members - each with their own unique +communication and privacy needs. This allows Friendika to scale to global +levels and mimics the decentralised architecture of the web itself. If you are creating a website which requires social interaction, Friendika -can take the place of blog software, forum software and feed readers, and +can also take the place of blog software, forum software and feed readers, and also provide individualised communications and content management - or -provide a ready alternative to traditional "monolithic" social networks. +simply be used as an alternative to traditional "monolithic" social networks. - Join us. + Friendika is also free - in every sense of the word. + + Choose freedom. Join us. Find out more about the project at http://project.friendika.com