diff --git a/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.adoc b/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.adoc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..795a9624
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.adoc
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+= Contributor Code of Conduct
+
+As contributors and maintainers of this project, and in the interest of fostering an open
+and welcoming community, we pledge to respect all people who contribute through reporting
+issues, posting feature requests, updating documentation, submitting pull requests or
+patches, and other activities.
+
+We are committed to making participation in this project a harassment-free experience for
+everyone, regardless of level of experience, gender, gender identity and expression,
+sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age,
+religion, or nationality.
+
+Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:
+
+* The use of sexualized language or imagery
+* Personal attacks
+* Trolling or insulting/derogatory comments
+* Public or private harassment
+* Publishing other's private information, such as physical or electronic addresses,
+ without explicit permission
+* Other unethical or unprofessional conduct
+
+Project maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments,
+commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this
+Code of Conduct, or to ban temporarily or permanently any contributor for other behaviors
+that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.
+
+By adopting this Code of Conduct, project maintainers commit themselves to fairly and
+consistently applying these principles to every aspect of managing this project. Project
+maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct may be permanently removed
+from the project team.
+
+This Code of Conduct applies both within project spaces and in public spaces when an
+individual is representing the project or its community.
+
+Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by
+contacting a project maintainer at spring-code-of-conduct@pivotal.io . All complaints will
+be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that is deemed necessary and
+appropriate to the circumstances. Maintainers are obligated to maintain confidentiality
+with regard to the reporter of an incident.
+
+This Code of Conduct is adapted from the
+http://contributor-covenant.org[Contributor Covenant], version 1.3.0, available at
+http://contributor-covenant.org/version/1/3/0/[contributor-covenant.org/version/1/3/0/]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.adoc b/CONTRIBUTING.adoc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f1cb9a89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.adoc
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+= Contributing to Spring Web Services
+
+Spring Web Services is released under the Apache 2.0 license. If you would like to contribute
+something, or simply want to hack on the code this document should help you get started.
+
+== Code of Conduct
+This project adheres to the Contributor Covenant link:CODE_OF_CONDUCT.adoc[code of
+conduct]. By participating, you are expected to uphold this code. Please report
+unacceptable behavior to spring-code-of-conduct@pivotal.io.
+
+== Using JIRA issues
+We use JIRA issues to track bugs and enhancements. If you have a general usage question
+please ask on http://stackoverflow.com[Stack Overflow]. The Spring Web Services team and the
+broader community monitor the http://stackoverflow.com/tags/spring-ws[`spring-ws`]
+tag.
+
+If you are reporting a bug, please help to speed up problem diagnosis by providing as much
+information as possible. Submitting a github-hosted sample project replicating the problem helps.
+
+== Sign the Contributor License Agreement
+Before we accept a non-trivial patch or pull request we will need you to sign the
+https://support.springsource.com/spring_committer_signup[contributor's agreement].
+Signing the contributor's agreement does not grant anyone commit rights to the main
+repository, but it does mean that we can accept your contributions, and you will get an
+author credit if we do. Active contributors might be asked to join the core team, and
+given the ability to merge pull requests. Use '`Phillip Webb`' or '`Dave Syer`' in the
+project lead field when you complete the form.
+
+== Code Conventions and Housekeeping
+None of these are essential for a pull request, but they help. They can also be
+added after the original pull request but before a merge.
+
+* Use the Spring Framework code format conventions.
+* Make sure all new `.java` files to have a simple Javadoc class comment with at least an
+ `@author` tag identifying you, and preferably at least a paragraph on what the class is
+ for.
+* Add the ASF license header comment to all new `.java` files (copy from existing files
+ in the project)
+* Add yourself as an `@author` to the `.java` files that you modify substantially (more
+ than cosmetic changes).
+* Add some Javadocs.
+* A few unit tests would help a lot as well -- someone has to do it.
+* If no-one else is using your branch, please rebase it against the current master (or
+ other target branch in the main project).
+* When writing a commit message please follow http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-about-git-commit-messages.html[these conventions].
+
+=== Building from source
+This project includes the Gradle wrapper, meaning you don't have to install any CLI tools to compile. Simply clone it and do this:
+
+==== Default build
+The project can be built from the root directory using the standard gradle wrapper command:
+
+----
+$ ./gradlew clean build
+----
+
+If you are rebuilding often, you might also want to skip the tests until you are ready
+to submit a pull request:
+
+----
+$ ./gradlew clean build -x test
+----
diff --git a/README.adoc b/README.adoc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..12dfc6a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.adoc
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+= Spring Web Services
+
+Spring Web Services is a product of the Spring community focused on creating
+document-driven Web services. Spring Web Services aims to facilitate
+contract-first SOAP service development, allowing for the creation of flexible
+web services using one of the many ways to manipulate XML payloads.
+
+== Installation
+
+Releases of Spring Web Services are available for download from Maven Central,
+as well as our own repository, http://repo.springsource.org/release[http://repo.springsource.org/release].
+
+For Maven users:
+
+[source]
+----
+
+ repository.spring.release
+ Spring GA Repository
+ http://repo.spring.io/release
+
+...
+
+ org.springframework.ws
+ spring-ws-core
+ 2.1.4
+
+----
+
+== Snapshots
+
+Nightly snapshots of Spring Web Services are available for download from our
+snapshot repository, http://repo.springsource.org/snapshot[http://repo.springsource.org/snapshot].
+
+For Maven users:
+
+[source]
+----
+
+ repository.spring.snapshot
+ Spring Snapshot Repository
+ http://repo.spring.io/snapshot
+
+...
+
+ org.springframework.ws
+ spring-ws-core
+ 2.2.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT
+
+----
+
+== Building from Source
+
+Spring Web Services uses a http://gradle.org[Gradle]-based build system. In
+the instructions below, http://vimeo.com/34436402[`./gradlew`] is invoked
+from the root of the source tree and serves as a cross-platform, self-contained
+bootstrap mechanism for the build. The only prerequisites are
+http://help.github.com/set-up-git-redirect[Git] and JDK 1.7+.
+
+=== check out sources
+
+`git clone git://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ws.git`
+
+=== compile and test, build all jars, distribution zips and docs
+
+`./gradlew build`
+
+=== install all spring-* jars into your local Maven cache
+
+`./gradlew install`
+
+… and discover more commands with `./gradlew tasks`. See also the https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/wiki/Gradle-build-and-release-FAQ[Gradle build and release FAQ].
+
+== Documentation
+
+See the current
+http://static.springsource.org/spring-ws/docs/current/javadoc-api[Javadoc]
+and http://static.springsource.org/spring-ws/docs/current/spring-ws-reference[reference
+docs].
+
+== Issue Tracking
+
+Spring Web Services uses https://jira.springsource.org/browse/SWS[JIRA] for issue tracking purposes
+
+== License
+
+Spring Web Services is http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html[Apache 2.0 licensed].
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
deleted file mode 100644
index 41613ab1..00000000
--- a/README.md
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,78 +0,0 @@
-# Spring Web Services
-Spring Web Services is a product of the Spring community focused on creating
-document-driven Web services. Spring Web Services aims to facilitate
-contract-first SOAP service development, allowing for the creation of flexible
-web services using one of the many ways to manipulate XML payloads.
-
-## Installation
-
-Releases of Spring Web Services are available for download from Maven Central,
-as well as our own repository, http://repo.springsource.org/release.
-
-For Maven users:
-
-
- repository.spring.release
- Spring GA Repository
- http://repo.spring.io/release
-
- ...
-
- org.springframework.ws
- spring-ws-core
- 2.1.4
-
-
-## Snapshots
-
-Nightly snapshots of Spring Web Services are available for download from our
-snapshot repository, http://repo.springsource.org/snapshot.
-
-For Maven users:
-
-
- repository.spring.snapshot
- Spring Snapshot Repository
- http://repo.spring.io/snapshot
-
- ...
-
- org.springframework.ws
- spring-ws-core
- 2.2.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT
-
-
-## Building from Source
-
-Spring Web Services uses a [Gradle](http://gradle.org)-based build system. In
-the instructions below, [`./gradlew`](http://vimeo.com/34436402) is invoked
-from the root of the source tree and serves as a cross-platform, self-contained
-bootstrap mechanism for the build. The only prerequisites are
-[Git](http://help.github.com/set-up-git-redirect) and JDK 1.7+.
-
-### check out sources
-`git clone git://github.com/spring-projects/spring-ws.git`
-
-### compile and test, build all jars, distribution zips and docs
-`./gradlew build`
-
-### install all spring-\* jars into your local Maven cache
-`./gradlew install`
-
-... and discover more commands with `./gradlew tasks`. See also the [Gradle build and release FAQ](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/wiki/Gradle-build-and-release-FAQ).
-
-## Documentation
-
-See the current
-[Javadoc](http://static.springsource.org/spring-ws/docs/current/javadoc-api)
-and [reference
-docs](http://static.springsource.org/spring-ws/docs/current/spring-ws-reference
-).
-
-## Issue Tracking
-
-Spring Web Services uses [JIRA](https://jira.springsource.org/browse/SWS) for issue tracking purposes
-
-## License
-
-Spring Web Services is [Apache 2.0 licensed](http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html).
\ No newline at end of file