Create README.md

Author: ericvaandering

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# About DocDB
+
+DocDB is a powerful and flexible collaborative document server. It was originally developed for use by the BTeV collaboration 
+at Fermilab and is now used by twenty or more other experiments, Fermilab divisions, organizations, national laboratories, 
+and companies (a partial list). DocDB is well suited for managing and sharing documents (not just official publications) 
+among groups of up to several hundred people.
+
+A DocDB installation consists of three parts: 1) a relational database which stores information about the documents, 
+2) a file system hierarchy used for storing the documents themselves, 
+and 3) a suite of CGI scripts which provide coherent access to both sets of information.
+
+ * DocDB maintains a versioned list of documents in a MySQL database. Information maintained in the database includes, 
+author(s), title, topic(s), events(s), creation on modification dates, revision number, abstract, keywords, document type, 
+pointers to the actual document files, and access restriction information.
+ * Access to DocDB is controlled by cgi scripts that run on your web server.
+ * When a document is submitted to DocDB, the document is copied (from either local disk or an html address) to a directory located on the web server. Documents may be composed of many files.
+ * Documents are copied to a central location so that they will not "disappear" when someone rearranges or deletes files. This also enables centralized backup.
+ * Changes to a document result in a new version of the document. Old versions remain available, providing historical archiving. Different versions allow different access restrictions, so documents can be developed in private and then released.
+ * DocDB contains an event and agenda management system which allows documents to be associated with meetings of all sizes.
+
+Please see BTeV-doc-140 for a somewhat outdated description of DocDB.
+
+DocDB is available under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL), version 2.
+
+To obtain DocDB, please see the files section of our project management page for a zip file. 
+For the very latest code, see the developers GitHub repository. Installation instructions are maintained at Fermilab. 
+
+Send questions about installing DocDB to docdb-users@fnal.gov 
+The docdb-users mailing list is archived at http://listserv.fnal.gov/archives/docdb-users.html.
+
+If you have questions about using a particular DocDB implementation, please send mail to the administrators of that 
+implementation. You should find a link labeled Document Database Administrators at the bottom of every DocDB page.
+
+