How it started edit
I have been working for Microsoft for several years, eventually as project manager, and I loved the multicultural atmosphere there. One coworker was Hindu, her husband Muslim, her Manager Palestinian; I'm German, and I worked with a Jew who said the Palestinian was her best manager. What I didn't like was the red tape, and that the work felt more and more insignificant. When my last project at Microsoft ended, I started a few nonprofit initiatives, such as Alternative Giving, and started spending more time on Wikipedia. At an alternative gift fair, I learned of Nonviolent Peaceforce, and I attended a presentation in which they told about their work in Sri Lanka, which filled me with hope that there IS a "YES" answer when you say "NO" to war.
After receiving several compliments for mediation skills and civilty in tough cases I felt a calling and I joined the Mediation Cabal (after CakeProphet made aware of it). By serendipity I found the case Wikipedia:Mediation Cabal/Cases/2006-10-20 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which fit so well to what I had just heard from Nonviolent Peaceforce. So I took the opportunity to gain experience both with mediation in general and with the conflict in Sri Lanka in particular. (For more on my mediation on Wikipedia, see User:SebastianHelm/Mediation.)
WikiProject Sri Lanka Reconciliation edit
After the success of the LTTE mediation, I was invited to join WikiProject Neutral Coverage of the Sri Lankan Crisis. The project had become defunct after it was perceived as imbalanced, so I reached out to editors from the underrepresented side with messages like the following:
I love the idea of a WikiProject for neutral coverage of the Sri Lanka crisis. There already exists such a project, Wikipedia:WikiProject NCSLC, and I'm considering joining it. This would be an ideal forum to discuss issues of general interest, such as User:SebastianHelm/Sri Lanka#Recommended guideline for editing Sri Lanka conflict related articles. So far, I have hesitated because I wasn't sure if it would be perceived as being neutral, since the member list seemed to have some bias. However, if you could join, too, then I think we can really improve things there together. Please reply on User talk:SebastianHelm/Sri Lanka#Wikipedia:WikiProject NCSLC. Thanks! — Sebastian 18:50, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
I gathered the concerns and discussed them with the project founder, but I was not able to broker an agreement. Therefore I suggested to start a new WikiProject (now archived at New WikiProject?), which led to the foundation of Wikipedia:WikiProject Sri Lanka Reconciliation.
The project flourished until the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009, and is now closed.
The links "NCSLC or new project", and "Proposed qualifications" redirect here.