Improve content on landing page

[willum070]

Update landing page at http://codalab.github.io/codalab/ to address each of our four main personae:

• Competition participants
• Competition creators
• Worksheet creators/collaborators
• Community developers

Add subtopics to provide a detailed summary for each area, and point readers to the appropriate resources.

[percyliang]

I think the landing page should be a lot more concrete with examples of how to get started immediately. People should be able to get utility out of CodaLab in under one minute.

Here's a good example of this: http://nodejs.org/

I'm thinking of having a set of scenarios. One of them is just running a standard ML algorithm on a dataset that the user uploads:

pip install codalab-cli cl work bundles.codalab.org:2800 cl upload cl run boosted-decision-trees

Something similar could be done for competitions.

-Percy

On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 9:38 AM, willum070 notifications@github.com wrote:

Update landing page at http://codalab.github.io/codalab/ to address each of our four main personae:

• Competition participants
• Competition creators
• Worksheet creators/collaborators
• Community developers

Add subtopics to provide a detailed summary for each area, and point readers to the appropriate resources.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codalab/codalab/issues/429 .

[willum070]

Having a bit of trouble getting that example to work:

(codalab_env) PS[2] C:\Users\v-wfren\Documents\GitHub\codalab-cli
> cl work bundles.codalab.org:2800
UsageError: Names must match ^[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_\.\-]*\Z, was bundles.codalab.org:2800

Hints? Anyone? Bueller?

[percyliang]

This example doesn't work yet...just leave it as a stub.

-Percy

On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 11:39 AM, willum070 notifications@github.comwrote:

Having a bit of trouble getting that example to work: (codalab_env) PS[2] C:\Users\v-wfren\Documents\GitHub\codalab-cli

cl work bundles.codalab.org:2800 UsageError: Names must match ^[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9.-]*\Z, was bundles.codalab.org:2800

Hints? Anyone? Bueller?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codalab/codalab/issues/429#issuecomment-41316492 .

[willum070]

Here is a draft for where I want to go with the landing page. I am using my own personal repo:

http://willum070.github.io/docteam/index.html

[percyliang]

Thanks William.

I think the following will make the structure clearer:

• There should be two columns - one for worksheets and the other for competitions. The worksheet column should have "Analyze your data" and "Test your algorithms" and the competition platform should have "Participate in a competition" and "Host a competition". Each of these 4 subpoints should have a little box that has something very concrete (either commands or a screenshot to get started).
• We should have links to the actual CodaLab instances (probably one for medical imaging and one for machine learning for now).
• "Develop the platform" should be separate and at the bottom...this is not important to feature prominently - people can't develop unless they really understand what the site is about.

• I'd try slim down the actual text. Currently, there is some overlap between the "Welcome to CodaLab" part and the "About CodaLab" part.

  -Percy

On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 12:08 PM, willum070 notifications@github.comwrote:

Here is a draft for where I want to go with the landing page. I am using my own personal repo:

http://willum070.github.io/docteam/index.html

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codalab/codalab/issues/429#issuecomment-41428638 .

[SJMercer]

Sounds good regarding the page design, but why would there be a separate instance for medical imaging?

As we have discussed, the intent is to build a community which would strongly argue for one instance for everyone and Percy, my understanding was that you agreed to be the community leader – which is why we are working with you to define features? Or do you mean you would run two instances?

Could you clarify please?

Simon Mercer Director, Health & Wellbeing | Microsoft Research Connections | Office +1 425-707-1441 | Cell +1 425-802-8213

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From: Percy Liang [mailto:notifications@github.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 1:17 PM To: codalab/codalab Subject: Re: [codalab] Improve content on landing page (#429)

Thanks William.

I think the following will make the structure clearer:

• There should be two columns - one for worksheets and the other for competitions. The worksheet column should have "Analyze your data" and "Test your algorithms" and the competition platform should have "Participate in a competition" and "Host a competition". Each of these 4 subpoints should have a little box that has something very concrete (either commands or a screenshot to get started).
• We should have links to the actual CodaLab instances (probably one for medical imaging and one for machine learning for now).
• "Develop the platform" should be separate and at the bottom...this is not important to feature prominently - people can't develop unless they really understand what the site is about.
• I'd try slim down the actual text. Currently, there is some overlap between the "Welcome to CodaLab" part and the "About CodaLab" part.

-Percy

On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 12:08 PM, willum070 notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.com>wrote:

Here is a draft for where I want to go with the landing page. I am using my own personal repo:

http://willum070.github.io/docteam/index.html

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codalab/codalab/issues/429#issuecomment-41428638 .

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codalab/codalab/issues/429#issuecomment-41726507.

[zyskowski]

We want CodaLab.org to be a single instance that supports all forms of ML competitions and experimentation, including Medical Imaging. The ability to create a separate instance of CodaLab should be supported but not encouraged.

[percyliang]

I definitely support community building. But anyone is allowed to create their own instance of CodaLab. People will do this, and I think it's a good thing (just think about how many git repositories there are in the world).

The key feature is that with a simple command, people will be able to sync contents from one CodaLab instance to another, so that having data on different instances by no means prevents having a community.

The main advantage of having decentralization is that people who have sensitive data can just run their own CodaLab instances, do experiements, and then transfer a sanitized version of their data to the main CodaLab instance. I think this will actually lower the barrier to entry and get more adoption.

-Percy

On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 3:29 PM, zyskowski notifications@github.com wrote:

We want CodaLab.org to be a single instance that supports all forms of ML competitions and experimentation, including Medical Imaging. The ability to create a separate instance of CodaLab should be supported but not encouraged.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/codalab/codalab/issues/429#issuecomment-41740326 .

[willum070]

The new improved landing page is part of the CodaLab site (codalab\codalab\apps\web\templates\web\index.html). All documentation is hosted on the wiki, and the GitHub pages host featured content which is a little more graphical in nature. More details about CodaLab documentation can be found here: https://github.com/codalab/codalab/wiki/Project_About_Documentation