= Welcome to HelpIM =

HelpIM is an open source (GPL) application designed for psycho-social counselling by instant messaging.
'''Key benefits''' are:

 * client can contact with almost any browser, no additional software is needed
 * designed with security and privacy in mind
 * highly extensible and configurable
 * easy interface for staff members
 * easy management
 * possibilities for quality control and reviewing of counseling
 * overview of management information

Among the configurable '''functionalities''' are:

 * questionnaires before and after the chat for the client
 * questions after the chat for the staff-member
 * registration-system
 * advanced statistics
 * group chat
 * typing notification
 * smiley's
 * sending / receiving urls
 * restoring a chat after a broken connection
 * ... and many more

== Use ==
Right now HelpIM is the most used software for psycho-social counseling chats in the Netherlands. HelpIM is maintained by the [http://www.e-hulp.nl e-hulp.nl foundation]. Its current maintainer is [mailto:winfried.tilanus@e-hulp.nl Winfried Tilanus].

== Documentation ==
=== End user documentation ===
The documentation on HelpIM is mainly in Dutch and mainly aimed at end-users. Most documentation is custom-written for a several specific sites. Technical documentation is more limited. The documentation can be found [wiki:Documentation here].
=== Documentation for system administrators ===
Some information for system administrators can be found [wiki:Administration here].
=== Developers documentation ===
A read-only subversion repository can be found at [http://www.helpim.org/subversion/ http://www.helpim.org/subversion/]. Feel free to do a subversion checkout and take a look at the source. More information for developing on HelpIM can be found [wiki:Developing here].