diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst
index c10855648..42be67ac2 100644
--- a/doc/source/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/index.rst
@@ -11,26 +11,66 @@
       License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
       under the License.
 
-Welcome to Zaqar's documentation!
-=================================
+=============================================
+Welcome to the Zaqar developer documentation!
+=============================================
 
-Zaqar is an OpenStack project to provide "Messaging as a service".
+Zaqar is a multi-tenant cloud messaging and notification service for web
+and mobile developers.
 
-Zaqar, as with all OpenStack projects, is written with the following design
+The service features a ReST API, which developers can use to send messages
+between various components of their SaaS and mobile applications, by using a
+variety of communication patterns. Underlying this API is an efficient
+messaging engine designed with scalability and security in mind.
+
+Other OpenStack components can integrate with Zaqar to surface events to
+end users and to communicate with guest agents that run in the
+"over-cloud" layer.
+
+.. note:: This documentation is generated by the Sphinx toolkit and lives in the Zaqar project source
+   tree. Additional draft and project documentation regarding Zaqar and other components of OpenStack can
+   be found on the `OpenStack Wiki`_, as well as in the user guides found on `docs.openstack.org`_.
+
+.. _`OpenStack Wiki`: http://wiki.openstack.org
+.. _`docs.openstack.org`: http://docs.openstack.org
+
+Key features
+============
+
+Zaqar provides the following key features:
+
+* HTTP-based messaging API
+* Multi-tenant design based on Keystone project IDs
+* Support for several common patterns including event broadcasting, task
+  distribution, and point-to-point messaging
+* Component-based architecture with support for custom backends and
+  message filters
+* Efficient reference implementation with an eye toward low latency and
+  high throughput (dependent on backend)
+* Highly-available and horizontally scalable
+
+Project scope
+=============
+
+The Zaqar API is data-oriented. That is, it does not provision message brokers
+and expose those directly to clients. Instead, the API acts as a bridge
+between the client and one or more backends. A provisioning service for
+message brokers—however useful—serves a somewhat different market from what
+Zaqar is targeting today. With that in mind, if users are interested in a
+broker provisioning service, the community should consider starting a new
+project to address that need.
+
+Design principles
+=================
+
+Zaqar, as with all OpenStack projects, is designed with the following
 guidelines in mind:
 
-* **Component based architecture**: Quickly add new behaviors
-* **Highly available**: Scale to very serious workloads
-* **Fault tolerant**: Isolated processes avoid cascading failures
-* **Recoverable**: Failures should be easy to diagnose, debug, and rectify
-* **Open standards**: Be a reference implementation for a community-driven api
-
-This documentation is generated by the Sphinx toolkit and lives in the source
-tree. Additional draft and project documentation on Zaqar and other components of OpenStack can
-be found on the `OpenStack wiki`_. Cloud administrators, refer to `docs.openstack.org`_.
-
-.. _`OpenStack wiki`: http://wiki.openstack.org
-.. _`docs.openstack.org`: http://docs.openstack.org
+* **Component-based architecture.** Quickly add new behaviors
+* **Highly available and scalable.** Scale to very serious workloads
+* **Fault tolerant.** Isolated processes avoid cascading failures
+* **Recoverable.** Failures should be easy to diagnose, debug, and rectify
+* **Open standards.** Be a reference implementation for a community-driven
 
 Concepts
 ========