-Mistpark Server
-Version 2.0 alpha
+ *************
+ * Friendika *
+ *************
-IMPORTANT: Please see the file INSTALL for system requirements.
+ Friendika Communications Server
-Mistpark introduces a new generation of social networks. Mistpark Server
-allows you to interact with other members of the Mistpark community using
-the DFRN (Distributed Friends and Relations Network) protocol. Other networks
-(such as Diaspora, OneSocialWeb, status.net, etc.) will be supported in the
-future as their products mature and protocol and privacy/rights issues are
-resolved between these networks.
+ http://project.friendika.com
-It's your network now. If social networking isn't what you thought it would
-be, help us to make it better.
-A single instance of Mistpark Server supports up to several hundred people
-using commodity hosting hardware. Also available from Mistpark Labs is
-Mistpark Personal Edition, which supports a single user.
+ 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 adequately describe Friendika's
+capabilities - though Friendika can also fill those roles.
-Please see http://dfrn.org for more information on the mistpark/DFRN project.
+ At its essence, Friendika is a web application which can monitor various
+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 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 account on any other Friendika server. You can also connect to and
+interact directly with friends on Facebook, Status.Net, and other federated
+social web services (e.g. identi.ca, GNU-Social, etc.).
+
+ Outgoing communications can be directed to Friendika, existing accounts on
+Facebook and Twitter, federated social web providers - or even delivered to
+email contacts.
+
+ Incoming data streams aren't limited to traditional social networks.
+They may include most any service which provides a syndication feed (both RSS
+and Atom). This allows you to view communications from friends in other
+diverse social networks - such as Diaspora, Google Buzz, and millions of
+blogs, news services, and other websites. You can also import
+contacts from (and write to) anybody that is accessible from your email
+INBOX and view them in your social stream. Over time we will try to
+build two-way bridges to other services so that you can freely
+interact in both directions with anybody on an accessible network that
+allows it.
+
+ 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 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 also take the place of blog software, forum software and feed readers, and
+also provide individualised communications and content management - or
+simply be used as an alternative to traditional "monolithic" social networks.
+
+ 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
+
+ *******************
+ Friendika Demo Site
+ *******************
+
+ http://demo.friendika.com
+
+ *******************
+ Friendika Downloads
+ *******************
+
+ http://github.com/friendika/friendika/tarball/master
-We will be providing a support site specifically for mistpark at
-http://mistpark.com at a future (unspecified) date. We are still
-evaluating wiki, forum, and bug-tracking software for use on the project.
-At the present time, you may contact the author and raise issues via
-the source code repository on github.
-Please support mistpark with a donation.