diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,24 +1,101 @@
-# README
+# edcontext
 
-This README would normally document whatever steps are necessary to get the
-application up and running.
+This project contains three pieces:
+- A webapp for visualizing and understanding MCIEA survey data
+- Tasks for processing and indexing raw survey data
+- Experimental work to conduct survey samples via text message
 
-Things you may want to cover:
+This is a Rails project, deployed on Heroku.
 
-* Ruby version
 
-* System dependencies
+## Local development
+```
+$ bundle install
+$ bundle exec rake db:create db:migrate db:seed
+```
+At this point you can run the app and login.  There won't be any data yet though; keep reading!
 
-* Configuration
+## Loading Data
+Postgres is the primary data store for the webapp, but the definitions of the questions and measures are stored in `.json` files and raw survey data is stored in `.csv` files.  These are collected offline, and then processed by the rake tasks to load that data into Postgres for use by the webapp.
 
-* Database creation
+There are several different kinds of data needed:
+- `measures.json`
+- `questions.json`
+- `student_responses.csv`
+- `teacher_responses.csv`
 
-* Database initialization
+You can load these into the database and index them for use in the webapp by running rake tasks.
 
-* How to run the test suite
+You can start by generating fake data:
+```
+$ bundle exec rake data:generate
+```
 
-* Services (job queues, cache servers, search engines, etc.)
+Loading all the real response data take a while, so you can start by loading only a sample of the data for one particular school with:
 
-* Deployment instructions
+```
+$ bundle exec rake data:load_sample
+```
 
-* ...
+This loads all the data:
+
+```
+$ bundle exec rake data:load
+```
+
+
+## Demo deploy
+Get the code and make a new repo without any history.
+```
+$ mkdir edcos-demo
+$ git clone https://github.com/jaredcosulich/edcontext.git
+$ cd edcontext
+# git co feature/ecos-demo
+$ rm -rf .git # remove past git history, which has secrets and response data
+$ git init
+$ git co -b master
+$ git commit -m "Initial demo commit"
+```
+
+Make a new Heroku app and deploy:
+1. Create a new Heroku app
+2. Add Postgres
+3. Deploy
+4. Run `heroku run rake db:migrate db:seed data:generate`
+5. Run `heroku run rails console` and add a demo user (eg, `User.create!(email: 'demo@demo.edcontext.org', password: '123456')`)
+5. Try it out!
+
+
+## Path to open source
+- [x] Personal phone numbers in code - these are removed (`seed.rb`)
+- [x] API keys in code - these are removed (`attempts_controller.rb`)
+- [x] Create generator task for demo site
+- [x] Remove .csv responses
+- [ ] `target_group` in questions aren't set
+
+## Data
+Loading attempts took a while.  I factored data rake task out into Ruby class to call methods more directly, and then added whitelist option for importing only data for a particular school.  I used the Vinson school as my test case.
+
+
+## Making site navigable
+- loading data - uncomment and split to bulk
+- creating new admin user manually
+- moving `#verify_super_admin` to `application_controller`, adding it for `/admin` pages
+- `welcome/index.html.haml` to remove commented code and require login
+- Login goes to `/user`, add in link to home page there
+- Moved seed code into `pilot_parent_test.rake`, removed individual names and phone numbers
+- Added `recipients` and `recipient_lists` links to `school/show.html.haml`
+- Added `import` link to `recipients` page
+- Added `index` action and view for school schedules
+- Edit questions without school_id
+- Deleted API keys and numbers in `attempts_controller.rb`
+
+
+## Other Issues
+- can't get categories pages to show questions
+- looks like computation is inverted for some questions like `http://localhost:3000/schools/vinson-owen-elementary-school/categories/student-emotional-safety`
+- back link not working editing schools and districts
+- superadmin is done by user id
+- no schools for default user?
+- endpoints for school/categories, school/questions
+- attempts route and controller commented out
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