updated readme

Author: jreadey

README.md

@@ -1 +1,18 @@
-# hdf-rest-api
+# HDF REST API
+
+
+The HDF REST API is an interface to HDF5 data stored on network-based architectures. The HDF REST API has provisions to support CRUD (create, read, update and delete) operations on the full spectrum of HDF5 objects including: groups, links, datasets, attributes, and committed data types. See <https://support.hdfgroup.org/pubs/papers/RESTful_HDF5.pdf> for more information on the RESTful HDF5 interface.
+
+As a REST-based API, implementations can be developed in a variety of languages, such as JavaScript, Python, C, and other common languages. Some services which implement the HDF REST API are:
+
+* HDF Kita: <https://www.hdfgroup.org/hdf-kita>
+* HSDS:  <https://github.com/HDFGroup/hsds>
+* H5serv: <https://github.com/HDFGroup/h5serv>
+
+Not all implementations support all the REST operations documented here.  When a specific operation is not supported in one of the above implementations, it will be noted.
+
+There are also various packages and libraries that utilize the REST API as a client.  These include:
+
+* Python SDK - h5pyd:  <https://github.com/HDFGroup/h5pyd>
+* C/Fortran  HDF5 REST VOL: <https://bitbucket.hdfgroup.org/users/jhenderson/repos/rest-vol/browse>
+* R SDK - restfulSE: <https://github.com/vjcitn/restfulSE>