Updated README.

README.md

@@ -5,3 +5,94 @@ embeddable widget that generates a list of organizers from a
 spreadsheet.
 
 ![Screenshot of spreadsheet and rendered grid](/docs/screenshot.png)
+
+## Usage
+
+This app is designed to be hosted on GitHub Pages.
+
+[Hosted version][4]
+
+   [4]: https://civictechto.github.io/people-list-parser/
+
+## Technologies Used
+
+- GitHub Pages.
+  - Jekyll.
+- Bootstrap.
+- Javascript
+  - VueJS.
+  - PapaParse.
+- Google Spreadsheets.
+- CircleCI. (optional)
+  - Python.
+    - Click.
+
+## Rationale
+
+Communities like Civic Tech Toronto have some features that are unique:
+
+- Any member of community is welcome to participate in organizing.
+- One's status as an organizer is largely self-assessed.
+- The list of active organizers is often in flux.
+- There are multiple generations of leadership in the community.
+- The organization is predisposed to be a bit ahistorical, as in current leaders
+  don't always know how to situate themselves in leadership. ("Everyone I
+understood to be in charge is gone, so does that mean I'm in charge? Is
+this healthy and ok?")
+- Newcomers tend to assume that anyone who was there when they arrived
+  was "in charge" or "senior", though in fact they often arrive just before.
+- People who don't attend regularly still feel ownership.
+- Outsiders are rightfully curious who is stewarding the community.
+- A static list is hard to keep up-to-date.
+- Organizers have diverse skills and experiences outside tech that might
+  not be apparent to outsiders.
+
+For the reasons above, the goal of this experiment is to see if
+something can be created that involves:
+
+1. A spreadsheet of "member roster" data [(example)][1], ostensibly
+   "organizers" but can be any group.
+  - This can include data like Linkedin or Twitter links, among other
+    things.
+  - An eventual scheduled script to update some of this tedious
+    organizer data automatically based on membership in a Slack channel
+-- username, images, name, but also perhaps "last slack login", "last
+meetup RSVP", count of "total meetup RSVPs", etc.
+2. An optional spreadsheet of "checkin" data [(example)][2], with each
+   row noting a member status on a certain date -- for example, "active"
+or "alum".
+  - An eventual scheduled script to send interactive Slack messages to
+    members of a specific Slack channel, from which a button click will
+add a new row to the checkin data.
+3. A small embeddable app that can render the two tables above in a
+   visual and explorable way.
+  - A way to scan through the history of the organization and see how
+    it's evolved and changed over time. [Demo of control interface.][3]
+  - Should work without the need for the automated update scripts
+    mentioned above -- manual updates should be just as simple.
+
+
+**The idea is to create a widget that can be used by grassroots
+organizations with similar constraints and ways of operating --
+solidarity through shared infrastructure.**
+
+The hope is that offering something that can make "chaordic" organizing
+more legible will help alleviate pressure on grassroots groups to favour
+certain forms of hierarchy. The hypothesis is that sometimes these
+groups might lean toward hierarchy simply to make themselves legible to
+themselves and others, but finding other ways to be legible (like this
+tool) might help. Ideally, even non-technical groups would be able to
+make use of this tool to add clarity to their composition and history.
+
+   [1]: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LCVxEXuv70R-NozOwhNxZFtTZUmn1FLMPVD5wgIor9o/edit#gid=642523045
+   [2]: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LCVxEXuv70R-NozOwhNxZFtTZUmn1FLMPVD5wgIor9o/edit#gid=1061878392
+   [3]: https://civictechto.github.io/people-list-parser/slider-demo.html
+
+## Local Development
+
+```
+bundle install
+bundle exec jekyll serve
+```
+
+A local demo will be available at: http://localhost:4000