TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

If you build websites, you have no doubt heard about Ruby on Rails (RoR). But if you’re a designer or front-end developer or you’re using PHP without any application framework, it may seem like a big leap to adopt the Ruby on Rails approach. In this article, I hope to demystify Ruby on Rails and convince you that you can make the leap—and that it is a leap worth making if your needs fit within the Ruby on Rails “sweet spot” detailed below.
A List Apart: Articles: Creating More Using Less Effort with Ruby on Rails

Great article. It begins with an overview of RoR, why you would want to use it, and then goes into a little more detail on what exactly RoR is. 

 This isn’t a how-to, but provides some great context. I am going to learn RoR this summer, and this article provides a great beginning point.