Readme update
diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt
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+++ b/README.txt
@@ -1,64 +1,20 @@
 About Empire-DB
 ===============
 
-Apache Empire-db is a lightweight data access and persistence component for
-relational databases based on JDBC.
+The mission of Apache Empire-db is to provide an alternative approach for relational  
+database access compared to Object-Relational-Mapping (ORM) as offered by JDO and JPA.
 
-For release details see the file CHANGELOG.txt or visit the Empire-db website at
-http://empire-db.apache.org
+Apache Empire-db is intended for developers who strive to have full SQL freedom when 
+formulating queries and DML-Statements - without ever having to use string literals -
+and who also want to be able to control when and how statements are executed. 
 
+Unlike other approaches Empire-db does not rely on Java Annotations or Mapping-files
+for building queries but rather uses a Java Object model that is easy to access and
+extend. For Data Access and Data Interchange developers can choose between traditional 
+Java Beans and a more sophisticated dynamic interface provided by Record and DataListEntries.
 
-Getting Started
-===============
+Empire-db is DBMS vendor independent and provides handlers for Oracle, Microsoft SQLServer, 
+PostgreSQL, MySQL, HsqlDB, Derby, H2 and more.  
 
-An introduction to Empire-db is provided with the tutorial.pdf document 
-that can be found in the root directory of the distribution.  
-
-This component requires a Java 5 JDK (or higher).
-
-
-Building
-========
-
-To build Empire-db you need Apache Maven 2.0.9 or newer, which can be downloaded from 
-	http://maven.apache.org/download.html. 
-Make sure that your PATH includes the MVN_HOME/bin directory. 
-
-In order to build Empire-db use the following command from the command line:
-	> mvn clean install
-
-There are various ways to open the project(s) in your favorite IDE:
-
-=== Eclipse ===
-
- - From the command line:
-   Change to the 'src' sub-directory and run the following command:   
-   > mvn clean eclipse:eclipse -DdownloadSources=true 
-
-   In Eclipse choose: Import... Existing projects into workspace
-
-or 
- 
- - Install the M2Eclipse plugin from
-   http://m2eclipse.codehaus.org/
-   
-   In Eclipse choose: Import... Maven projects
-   
-=== Netbeans ===
-
- - Install the Maven plugin available in the update center (tools - plugins)
-   Open the project like you open any other Netbeans project
-
-
-Getting help
-============
-
-The best place for getting help is the empire-db user mailing list.
-First subscribe to the list by sending an email to:
-	user-subscribe@empire-db.apache.org
-
-Afterwards you may post a message to:
-	user@empire-db.apache.org
-
-Please visit our Website for more information.
-http://empire-db.apache.org
+Further information can be found on our project website
+https://empire-db.apache.org/