but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence - Vince Lombardi. As I reflect on this summer (good grief, I can't believe it is almost time for the fall semester to start) this quote by the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers seemed very appropriate. First, it reminds me that football season is just around the corner. More importantly it was a message I picked up several different times at BCCE. One of the topics that comes up fairly regularly in meetings of the Leadership Council is the activation barrier to posting on VIPEr. All online communities have participants that are called ‘lurkers’; they observe what is happening, but don’t actively participate. Before I go any further, we love our lurkers. We hope you find something useful on the site that keeps bringing you back. But based on some conversations I had, I think there are many of you out there that would like to participate more. I have heard two main reasons why people do not. The first is time. If I could do something about that, trust me, I would. The second is a hesitation to put something on the site that isn’t perfect. This is something I feel I can address. We all face judgment by some nebulous group at some point, be it reviewers, tenure committees, etc. Sure, it can be intimidating. But I think the people that attended our workshops at BCCE (and most likely our summer workshop which I did not attend) learned that we are a pretty reasonable bunch. Except me of course, but I digress. We don’t expect perfection. In fact, our description of how to contribute to VIPEr states

“VIPEr works best if we keep the activation energy low and the exchanges vibrant.”

“So it’s more important to share your content as-is (and get community help improving it) than it is to make it perfectly polished.”

We don’t expect perfection, but we can all keep trying to improve. Maybe you have something you would like to get additional assessment data on. Why not crowd source that data from the VIPEr community? Or maybe you have something that you think is really great. Share it, and just maybe someone will find a way to improve it that you had never thought of. Part of the motivation behind starting our BITeS feature was to bring a more personal touch to the site. Hopefully I’ve managed to give you a little more insight into how we operate. Now go ahead, post on a forum or upload an LO.