diff --git a/brew-formulas.txt b/brew-formulas.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..61e3d33e3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/brew-formulas.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+readline 
+sqlite 
+gdbm 
+pkg-config 
+gfortran 
+python 
+yuicompressor 
+node
diff --git a/create-dev-env.sh b/create-dev-env.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..a45fc0dba0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/create-dev-env.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,273 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -e
+trap "ouch" ERR
+
+ouch() {
+    printf '\E[31m'
+
+    cat<<EOL
+    
+    !! ERROR !!
+
+    The last command did not complete successfully, 
+    see $LOG for more details or trying running the
+    script again with the -v flag.  
+
+EOL
+
+}
+error() {
+      printf '\E[31m'; echo "$@"; printf '\E[0m' 
+}
+output() {
+      printf '\E[36m'; echo "$@"; printf '\E[0m' 
+}
+usage() {
+    cat<<EO
+
+    Usage: $PROG [-c] [-v] [-h]
+    
+            -c        compile scipy and numpy
+            -v        set -x + spew
+            -h        this
+
+EO
+    info
+}
+
+info() {
+
+    cat<<EO
+    MITx base dir : $BASE 
+    Python dir : $PYTHON_DIR
+    Ruby dir : $RUBY_DIR
+    Ruby ver : $RUBY_VER
+
+EO
+}
+
+clone_repos() {
+    cd "$BASE"
+    output "Cloning mitx"
+    if [[ -d "$BASE/mitx" ]]; then
+        mv "$BASE/mitx" "${BASE}/mitx.bak.$$"
+    fi
+    git clone git@github.com:MITx/mitx.git >>$LOG 
+    output "Cloning askbot-devel"
+    if [[ -d "$BASE/askbot-devel" ]]; then
+        mv "$BASE/askbot-devel" "${BASE}/askbot-devel.bak.$$"
+    fi
+    git clone git@github.com:MITx/askbot-devel >>$LOG 
+    output "Cloning data"
+    if [[ -d "$BASE/data" ]]; then
+        mv "$BASE/data" "${BASE}/data.bak.$$"
+    fi
+    hg clone ssh://hg-content@gp.mitx.mit.edu/data >>$LOG 
+}
+
+PROG=${0##*/}
+BASE="$HOME/mitx_all"
+PYTHON_DIR="$BASE/python"
+RUBY_DIR="$BASE/ruby"
+RUBY_VER="1.9.3"
+NUMPY_VER="1.6.2"
+SCIPY_VER="0.10.1"
+BREW_FILE="$BASE/mitx/brew-formulas.txt"
+LOG="/var/tmp/install.log"
+APT_PKGS="curl git mercurial python-virtualenv build-essential python-dev gfortran liblapack-dev libfreetype6-dev libpng12-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev yui-compressor coffeescript"
+
+if [[ $EUID -eq 0 ]]; then
+    error "This script should not be run using sudo or as the root user"
+    usage
+    exit 1
+fi
+ARGS=$(getopt "cvh" "$*")
+if [[ $? != 0 ]]; then
+    usage
+    exit 1
+fi
+eval set -- "$ARGS"
+while true; do 
+    case $1 in 
+        -c)
+            compile=true
+            shift
+            ;;
+        -v)
+            set -x
+            verbose=true
+            shift
+            ;;
+        -h)
+            usage
+            exit 0
+            ;;
+        --)
+            shift
+            break
+            ;;
+    esac
+done
+
+cat<<EO
+
+  This script will setup a local MITx environment, this
+  includes
+
+       * Django
+       * A local copy of Python and library dependencies
+       * A local copy of Ruby and library dependencies
+
+  It will also attempt to install operating system dependencies
+  with apt(debian) or brew(OSx).
+
+  To compile scipy and numpy from source use the -c option
+
+  STDOUT is redirected to /var/tmp/install.log, run
+  $ tail -f /var/tmp/install.log
+  to monitor progress
+
+EO
+info
+output "Press return to begin or control-C to abort"
+read dummy
+
+if [[ -f $HOME/.rvmrc ]]; then
+    output "$HOME/.rvmrc alredy exists, not adding $RUBY_DIR"
+else
+    output "Creating $HOME/.rmrc so rvm uses $RUBY_DIR"
+    echo "export rvm_path=$RUBY_DIR" > $HOME/.rvmrc
+fi
+mkdir -p $BASE
+rm -f $LOG
+case `uname -s` in
+    [Ll]inux)
+        command -v lsb_release &>/dev/null || {
+            error "Please install lsb-release."
+            exit 1
+        }
+        distro=`lsb_release -cs`
+        case $distro in
+            lisa|natty|oneiric|precise)
+                output "Installing ubuntu requirements"
+                sudo apt-get -y update
+                sudo apt-get -y install $APT_PKGS 
+                clone_repos
+                ;;
+            *)
+                error "Unsupported distribution - $distro"
+                exit 1
+               ;;
+        esac
+        ;;
+    Darwin)
+        command -v brew &>/dev/null || { 
+            output "Installing brew"
+            /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/master/Library/Contributions/install_homebrew.rb)" 
+        } 
+        command -v git &>/dev/null || {
+            output "Installing git"
+            brew install git >> $LOG
+        }
+        command -v hg &>/dev/null || {
+            output "Installaing mercurial"
+            brew install mercurial >> $LOG
+        }
+
+        clone_repos
+
+        output "Installing OSX requirements"
+        if [[ ! -r $BREW_FILE ]]; then
+            error "$BREW_FILE does not exist, needed to install brew deps"
+            exit 1
+        fi
+        # brew errors if the package is already installed
+        for pkg in $(cat $BREW_FILE); do
+            grep $pkg <(brew list) &>/dev/null || {
+                output "Installing $pkg"
+                brew install $pkg  >>$LOG 
+            }
+        done
+        command -v pip &>/dev/null || {
+            output "Installing pip"
+            sudo easy_install pip  >>$LOG 
+        }
+        command -v virtualenv &>/dev/null || {
+            output "Installing virtualenv"
+            sudo pip install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper >> $LOG
+        }
+        command -v coffee &>/dev/null || {
+            output "Installing coffee script"
+            curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
+            npm install -g coffee-script
+        }
+        ;;
+    *)
+        error "Unsupported platform"
+        exit 1
+        ;;
+esac
+
+output "Installing rvm and ruby"
+curl -sL get.rvm.io | bash -s stable
+source $RUBY_DIR/scripts/rvm
+rvm install $RUBY_VER
+virtualenv "$PYTHON_DIR"
+source $PYTHON_DIR/bin/activate
+output "Installing gem bundler"
+gem install bundler
+output "Installing ruby packages"
+# hack :(
+cd $BASE/mitx  || true
+bundle install
+
+cd $BASE
+
+if [[ -n $compile ]]; then
+    output "Downloading numpy and scipy"
+    curl -sL -o numpy.tar.gz http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/numpy/NumPy/${NUMPY_VER}/numpy-${NUMPY_VER}.tar.gz
+    curl -sL -o scipy.tar.gz http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/scipy/scipy/${SCIPY_VER}/scipy-${SCIPY_VER}.tar.gz
+    tar xf numpy.tar.gz
+    tar xf scipy.tar.gz
+    rm -f numpy.tar.gz scipy.tar.gz
+    output "Compiling numpy"
+    cd "$BASE/numpy-${NUMPY_VER}"
+    python setup.py install >>$LOG  2>&1
+    output "Compiling scipy"
+    cd "$BASE/scipy-${SCIPY_VER}"
+    python setup.py install >>$LOG  2>&1
+    cd "$BASE"
+    rm -rf numpy-${NUMPY_VER} scipy-${SCIPY_VER}
+fi
+
+output "Installing askbot requirements"
+pip install -r askbot-devel/askbot_requirements.txt >>$LOG 
+pip install -r askbot-devel/askbot_requirements_dev.txt >>$LOG 
+output "Installing MITx requirements"
+pip install -r mitx/pre-requirements.txt >> $LOG
+pip install -r mitx/requirements.txt >>$LOG 
+
+mkdir "$BASE/log" || true
+mkdir "$BASE/db" || true
+
+cat<<END
+   
+   Success!!
+
+   To start using Django you will need
+   to activate the local Python and Ruby
+   environment:
+
+        $ source $RUBY_DIR/scripts/rvm
+        $ source $PYTHON_DIR/bin/activate
+  
+   To initialize and start a local instance of Django:
+        
+        $ cd $BASE/mitx
+        $ django-admin.py syncdb --settings=envs.dev --pythonpath=.
+        $ django-admin.py migrate --settings=envs.dev --pythonpath=.
+        $ django-admin.py runserver --settings=envs.dev --pythonpath=.   
+       
+END
+exit 0
+
diff --git a/install.txt b/install.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fa82b11a5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/install.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+This document describes how to set up the MITx development environment
+for both Linux (Ubuntu) and MacOS (OSX Lion). 
+
+There is also a script "create-dev-env.sh" that automates these steps.
+
+1) Make an mitx_all directory and clone the repos
+  (download and install git and mercurial if you don't have them already)
+
+    mkdir ~/mitx_all
+    cd ~/mitx_all
+    git clone git@github.com:MITx/mitx.git
+    git clone git@github.com:MITx/askbot-devel 
+    hg clone ssh://hg-content@gp.mitx.mit.edu/data 
+
+2) Install OSX dependencies (Mac users only)
+
+    a) Install the brew utility if necessary
+    /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/master/Library/Contributions/install_homebrew.rb)"
+
+    b) Install the brew package list
+    cat ~/mitx_all/mitx/brew-formulas.txt | xargs brew install
+
+    c) Install python pip if necessary
+    sudo easy_install pip  
+
+    d) Install python virtualenv if necessary
+    sudo pip install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper
+
+    e) Install coffee script
+    curl http://npmjs.org/install.sh | sh
+    npm install -g coffee-script
+
+3) Install Ubuntu dependencies (Linux users only)
+    
+    sudo apt-get install curl python-virtualenv build-essential python-dev gfortran liblapack-dev libfreetype6-dev libpng12-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev yui-compressor coffeescript
+
+
+4) Install rvm, ruby, and libraries
+
+    echo "export rvm_path=$HOME/mitx_all/ruby" > $HOME/.rvmrc
+    curl -sL get.rvm.io | bash -s stable
+    source ~/mitx_all/ruby/scripts/rvm
+    rvm install 1.9.3
+    gem install bundler
+    cd ~/mitx_all/mitx
+    bundle install
+   
+5) Install python libraries
+    
+    source ~/mitx_all/python/bin/activate
+    cd ~/mitx_all
+    pip install -r askbot-devel/askbot_requirements.txt 
+    pip install -r askbot-devel/askbot_requirements_dev.txt 
+    pip install -r mitx/pre-requirements.txt 
+    pip install -r mitx/requirements.txt 
+
+6) Create log and db dirs
+
+    mkdir ~/mitx_all/log
+    mkdir ~/mitx_all/db
+
+7) Start the dev server
+
+   To start using Django you will need
+   to activate the local Python and Ruby
+   environment:
+
+        $ source ~/mitx_all/ruby/scripts/rvm
+        $ source ~/mitx_all/python/bin/activate
+  
+   To initialize and start a local instance of Django:
+        
+        $ cd ~/mitx_all/mitx
+        $ django-admin.py syncdb --settings=envs.dev --pythonpath=.
+        $ django-admin.py migrate --settings=envs.dev --pythonpath=.
+        $ django-admin.py runserver --settings=envs.dev --pythonpath=.   
+ 
+