Update README.md

README.md

@@ -1,3 +1,33 @@
 
+Gossip protocol is a method for a group of nodes to discover and check the livelyness of a cluster. More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip_protocol.
 
-A gossip implementation forked from https://code.google.com/p/java-gossip/ 
+The original implementation was forked from https://code.google.com/p/java-gossip/. Several bug fixes and changes have already been added.
+
+Usage
+-----
+
+To gossip you need one or more seed nodes. Seed is just a list of places to initially connect to. 
+
+    GossipSettings settings = new GossipSettings();
+    int seedNodes = 3;
+    ArrayList<GossipMember> startupMembers = new ArrayList<GossipMember>();
+    for (int i = 1; i < seedNodes+1; ++i) {
+      startupMembers.add(new RemoteGossipMember("127.0.0." + i, 2000, i + ""));
+    }
+
+Here we start five gossip processes and check that they discover each other. (Normally these are on different hosts but here we give each process a distinct local ip.
+
+    ArrayList<GossipService> clients = new ArrayList<GossipService>();
+    int clusterMembers = 5;
+    for (int i = 1; i < clusterMembers+1; ++i) {
+      GossipService gossipService = new GossipService("127.0.0." + i, 2000, i + "", LogLevel.DEBUG, startupMembers, settings);
+      clients.add(gossipService);
+      gossipService.start();
+    }
+
+Later we can check that the nodes discover each other
+
+    Thread.sleep(10000);
+    for (int i = 0; i < clusterMembers; ++i) {
+      Assert.assertEquals(4, clients.get(i).get_gossipManager().getMemberList().size());
+    }