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* [Purpose](#purpose)
* [Who is it for?](#who-is-it-for)
* [What Monica isn't](#what-monica-isnt)
* [Vision, goals and strategy](#vision-goals-and-strategy)
* [Vision](#vision)
* [Goals](#goals)
* [Strategy](#strategy)
* [Why Open Source?](#why-open-source)
* [Get started](#get-started)
* [Update your server](#update-your-server)
* [Importing vCards (CLI only)](#importing-vcards-cli-only)
Expand All @@ -32,6 +27,13 @@
* [Statistics](#statistics)
* [Contributing](#contributing)
* [How the community can help](#how-the-community-can-help)
* [Vision, goals and strategy](#vision-goals-and-strategy)
* [Vision](#vision)
* [Goals](#goals)
* [Strategy](#strategy)
* [Monetization](#monetization)
* [The API](#the-api)
* [Why Open Source?](#why-open-source)
* [License](#license)

## Introduction
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -76,97 +78,6 @@ In fact, it's for your eyes only. Monica is also not a smart assistant - it
won't guess what you want to do. In fact, it's pretty dumb: it will send you
emails only for the things you asked to be reminded of.

## Vision, goals and strategy

We want to use technology in a way that does not harm human relationships, like
big social networks can do.

### Vision

Monica's vision is to **help people have more meaningful relationships**.

### Goals

We want to provide a platform that is:

* **really easy to use**: we value simplicity over anything else.
* **open-source**: we believe everyone should be able to contribute to this
tool, and see for themselves that nothing nasty is done behind the scenes that
would go against the best interests of the users. We also want to leverage the
community to build attractive features and do things that would not be possible
otherwise.
* **easy to contribute to**: we want to keep the codebase as simple as possible.
This has two big advantages: anyone can contribute, and it's easily maintainable
on the long run.
* **available everywhere**: Monica should be able to run on any desktop OS
or mobile phone easily. This will be made possible by making sure the tool is
easily installable by anyone who wants to either contribute or host the platform
themselves.
* **robust API**: the platform will have a robust API so it can communicate both
ways to other systems.

### Strategy

To reach this ambitious vision, we'll use technology in a way that does not harm
human relationships, like big social networks can do.

We think Monica has to become a platform more than an application, so people can
build on it.

Here what we should do in order to realize our vision:
* Build an API in order to create an ecosystem. The ecosystem is what will make
Monica a successful platform.
* Build importers and exporters of data. We don't want to have any vendor
lock-ins. Data is the property of the users and they should be able to do
whatever they want with it.
* Create mobile apps.
* Build great reports so people can have interesting insights.
* Create a smart recommendation system for gifts. For instance, if my nephew is
soon 6 years old in a month, I will be able to receive an email with a list of
5 potential gifts I can offer to a 6 year old boy.
* Add more ways of being reminded: Telegram, SMS,...
* Create Chrome extensions to load Monica's data in a sidebar when viewing a
contact on Facebook, letting us take additional notes as we see them on Facebook.
* Add modules that can be activated on demand. One would be for instance, for
the people who wants to use Monica for dating purposes (yes, we've received this
kind of feedback already).
* Add functional and unit tests so the main features are tested. Stability is
key.

### Why Open Source?

Why is Monica open source? Is it risky? Will someone steal my code and do a
for-profit business that will kill my own business? Why reveal my strategy to
the world? This is the kind of questions we've received by email already.

The answer to these questions is simple: yes, you can fork the project and do a
competing project, make money out of it (even if the license is not super
friendly to achieve that) and I'll never know. But it's ok, I don't mind.

I wanted to open source this project for several reasons:

* I believe, perhaps naively, that this project can really change people's
lives. While I aim to make money out of it, I also want everyone to benefit
from it. Open sourcing a project like this will help Monica become much bigger
than what I imagine myself. While I strongly believe that the project has to
follow the vision I have for it, I need to be humble enough to know that ideas
come from everywhere, and people have much better ideas than what I can have.
* You can't do something great alone. While Monica could become a company and
hire a bunch of super smart people to work on it, you can't beat the manpower of
an entire community. Open sourcing the product means bugs will be fixed faster,
features will be developed faster, and more importantly, developers will be able
to contribute to the project that changes either their own lives, or other
people's lives.
* Doing things in a transparent manner, like it's the case when you open source
something, lead to formidable things. People respect the project more. You can't
hide nasty piece of code. You can't do things behind the back of your users.
It's a major driving force that motivates you to keep doing what's right.
* I believe that once you have created a community of passionate developers
around your project, you've won - because developers are very powerful
influencers. Developers will create apps around your product, talk about it on
forums, and tell about the project to their friends. Cherish the developers -
users will follow.

## Get started

There are multiple ways of getting started with Monica.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -416,6 +327,125 @@ as much as you can.
* Finally, and most importantly, we are looking for people willing to write
tests for the existing features.

## Vision, goals and strategy

We want to use technology in a way that does not harm human relationships, like
big social networks can do.

### Vision

Monica's vision is to **help people have more meaningful relationships**.

### Goals

We want to provide a platform that is:

* **really easy to use**: we value simplicity over anything else.
* **open-source**: we believe everyone should be able to contribute to this
tool, and see for themselves that nothing nasty is done behind the scenes that
would go against the best interests of the users. We also want to leverage the
community to build attractive features and do things that would not be possible
otherwise.
* **easy to contribute to**: we want to keep the codebase as simple as possible.
This has two big advantages: anyone can contribute, and it's easily maintainable
on the long run.
* **available everywhere**: Monica should be able to run on any desktop OS
or mobile phone easily. This will be made possible by making sure the tool is
easily installable by anyone who wants to either contribute or host the platform
themselves.
* **robust API**: the platform will have a robust API so it can communicate both
ways to other systems.

### Strategy

To reach this ambitious vision, we'll use technology in a way that does not harm
human relationships, like big social networks can do.

We think Monica has to become a platform more than an application, so people can
build on it.

Here what we should do in order to realize our vision:
* Build an API in order to create an ecosystem. The ecosystem is what will make
Monica a successful platform.
* Build importers and exporters of data. We don't want to have any vendor
lock-ins. Data is the property of the users and they should be able to do
whatever they want with it.
* Create mobile apps.
* Build great reports so people can have interesting insights.
* Create a smart recommendation system for gifts. For instance, if my nephew is
soon 6 years old in a month, I will be able to receive an email with a list of
5 potential gifts I can offer to a 6 year old boy.
* Add more ways of being reminded: Telegram, SMS,...
* Create Chrome extensions to load Monica's data in a sidebar when viewing a
contact on Facebook, letting us take additional notes as we see them on Facebook.
* Add modules that can be activated on demand. One would be for instance, for
the people who wants to use Monica for dating purposes (yes, we've received this
kind of feedback already).
* Add functional and unit tests so the main features are tested. Stability is
key.

### Monetization

The big topic. Yes, we plan to make money out of this tool to sustain it on the
long run. We are a big fan of [Sentry](https://sentry.io), Wordpress and GitLab
and we believe this kind of business model is inspiring, where everyone wins.

* On https://monicahq.com, Monica will be offered in two versions:
* a free plan (called **Joe**):
* No limits of contacts
* Importers/exporters
* Email reminders
* a paid plan (called **Chandler**):
* Advanced features
* You can also **run it yourself**. This is the **Ross** version. This is
sometimes also called on-premise. Download the code, run it on Heroku, with
Docker. The choice is yours.
* The downloadable version will always be the most complete version - the same
offered on the paid plan on `.com`.
* This version will be completely free with no strings attached and you will
be in complete control.
* There will be a Patreon account for those who still want to support the tool.
Keep in mind that the best way to support it is to actually talk about it around
you.

#### The API

The API will be opened to everyone, for both on `.com` and on-premises.

### Why Open Source?

Why is Monica open source? Is it risky? Will someone steal my code and do a
for-profit business that will kill my own business? Why reveal my strategy to
the world? This is the kind of questions we've received by email already.

The answer to these questions is simple: yes, you can fork the project and do a
competing project, make money out of it (even if the license is not super
friendly to achieve that) and I'll never know. But it's ok, I don't mind.

I wanted to open source this project for several reasons:

* I believe, perhaps naively, that this project can really change people's
lives. While I aim to make money out of it, I also want everyone to benefit
from it. Open sourcing a project like this will help Monica become much bigger
than what I imagine myself. While I strongly believe that the project has to
follow the vision I have for it, I need to be humble enough to know that ideas
come from everywhere, and people have much better ideas than what I can have.
* You can't do something great alone. While Monica could become a company and
hire a bunch of super smart people to work on it, you can't beat the manpower of
an entire community. Open sourcing the product means bugs will be fixed faster,
features will be developed faster, and more importantly, developers will be able
to contribute to the project that changes either their own lives, or other
people's lives.
* Doing things in a transparent manner, like it's the case when you open source
something, lead to formidable things. People respect the project more. You can't
hide nasty piece of code. You can't do things behind the back of your users.
It's a major driving force that motivates you to keep doing what's right.
* I believe that once you have created a community of passionate developers
around your project, you've won - because developers are very powerful
influencers. Developers will create apps around your product, talk about it on
forums, and tell about the project to their friends. Cherish the developers -
users will follow.

## License

Copyright (c) 2016-2017 Regis Freyd
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