diff --git a/content/background.md b/content/background.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ccfc94a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/background.md
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Background
+==========
+
+The contributors to this document have been directly involved in the development and deployment of hundreds of apps, and indirectly witnessed the development, operation, and scaling of hundreds of thousands of apps via our work on the [Heroku](http://www.heroku.com/) platform.
+
+This document synthesizes all of our experience and observations on a wide variety of software-as-a-service apps in the wild.  It is a triangulation on ideal practices app development, paying particular attention to the dynamics of the organic growth of an app over time, the dynamics of collaboration between developers working on the app's codebase, and [avoiding the cost of software erosion](http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2011/6/28/the_new_heroku_4_erosion_resistance_explicit_contracts/).
+
+The format is inspired by Martin Fowler's books *[Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture](http://books.google.com/books/about/Patterns_of_enterprise_application_archi.html?id=FyWZt5DdvFkC)* and *[Refactoring](http://books.google.com/books/about/Refactoring.html?id=1MsETFPD3I0C)*.
+
diff --git a/public/style.css b/public/style.css
index 890fbcc..f5e2ea2 100644
--- a/public/style.css
+++ b/public/style.css
@@ -126,9 +126,10 @@ footer {
   color: #444;
   font-size: 10pt;
   background: #000;
-  padding-top: 48pt;
+  padding-top: 24pt;
   padding-bottom: 16pt;
-  text-align: center;
+  text-align: right;
+  padding-right: 64pt;
 }
 
 article img {
diff --git a/views/home.erb b/views/home.erb
index ba0e21f..7ea9a35 100644
--- a/views/home.erb
+++ b/views/home.erb
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 <section class="abstract">
   <article><%= render_markdown('intro') %></article>
   <article><%= render_markdown('who') %></article>
+  <article><%= render_markdown('background') %></article>
 </section>
 
 <section class="concrete">
@@ -8,5 +9,7 @@
 </section>
 
 <footer>
-  <div>Copyright &copy; <%= Time.now.year %> Adam Wiggins</div>
+  <div>Written by Adam Wiggins</div>
+  <div>version 0.9</div>
+  <div>Last updated July 30, 2011</div>
 </footer>