My first meeting with John Helie in Montreal in 1988 is also forever linked in my mind with Montreal’s remarkable network of underground walkways. It was March—cold, windy, and the kind of weather that makes you instantly grateful for heated tunnels. The kilometer-long underground route connecting our hotel to the conference center felt smart, humane, and collective. People working together to build a shared infrastructure that made life easier for everyone. It was a theme worth repeating.
I soon learned that John also had deep understandings of additional vital systems. John was trained as an Operating Room Technician in the military and had also developed exceptional plumbing skills—literally building and repairing plumbing systems that keep homes functioning.
On one visit to Berkeley, I also met Ron Kelly, the general contractor that John worked with. At that time, John was installing high-end plumbing fixtures in a very impressive Berkeley home. A few years later, Ron himself also transitioned into construction mediation and arbitration, and is now widely recognized as a leading authority on construction dispute resolution as well as mediator confidentiality and qualification issues in California.
Ron’s author page at Mediate.com is here: www.mediate.com/author/ron-kelly.
Once John, the AFM Board, and a steadily growing group of AFM members joined ConflictNet, the benefits became undeniable. During my six years as Executive Director, AFM itself grew from 807 members to over 3,200—thanks in no small part to our early and enthusiastic adoption of online communication.
On my regular trips from Oregon to Berkeley, John would show me the latest innovations emerging from IGC and the early Internet. First: green text screens. Then amber. Then full color. One day he demonstrated fonts. Another day: an image slowly painting itself onto the screen—my first glimpse of the World Wide Web. Soon after came “rich media” audio and video.
Every time, my reaction was the same: “This changes everything.”
And it did. Our ability to communicate through text, images, audio, and video—either live or asynchronously—completely reshaped what was possible online. Mediators gained an entirely new communication palette. Used skillfully, these tools allowed for a “choreography of communication,” helping participants move toward clearer understandings and better outcomes.
ConflictNet was thus co-founded by Diana Gould (now Diana Bonahadi) and John Helie. The two of them introduced me to the Institute for Global Communications (IGC), which had evolved from PeaceNet before merging with EcoNet and others to form a larger interconnected system. These networks—focused on labor, environment, women’s issues, peace, and conflict resolution—shared a common platform, allowing also for cross-community communication and resource sharing.
As IGC expanded internationally, it formed the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) to link global networks without appearing to impose a U.S.–centric hub. ConflictNet’s content, discussions, and dialogues became accessible on APC networks worldwide, including sites like GreenNet in London. At its peak, APC included more than a dozen networks across multiple continents.
IGC was supported by the Tides Foundation, which provided facilities at the Presidio and managed grants and staffing. ConflictNet itself began with essentially no funding. John’s plumbing work kept him afloat. A later grant from the Telecommunications Education Trust Fund—awarded as a corrective measure against fraudulent billing practices by phone companies—helped connect 18 community mediation centers across California.
Despite its small market, ConflictNet reached over 300 members at its height. Its core audience comprised activists, leaders, academics, and professionals determined to build a more effective dispute resolution field. Through organizations like AFM, ConflictNet became a central hub for Board communication, policy development, and lively professional discourse. By the early 1990s, it was the place to be for energized, ongoing conversations among mediators.
John Helie and Colin Rule in 2025
Another key figure in this era was Colin Rule, whose presence seemed to grace every conference I attended—representing NIDR (the National Institute for Dispute Resolution), CBI (the Consensus Building Institute), or sometimes simply being there by his own indefatigable curiosity. Colin eventually joined us at the ConflictNet booth, helping sell memberships. Even then, around 1990, he saw what few did: that online environments like ConflictNet—and later Mediate.com—would become indispensable for scaling the field of dispute resolution.
Support also came from the Hewlett Foundation, with Bob Barrett as program manager. Hewlett’s engagement grew partly through John’s role on the board of Berkeley Dispute Resolution Services and partly through the Bay Area’s thriving tech ecosystem and its active dispute resolution community.
When John and I transitioned from the email and text-based world of ConflictNet to graphical websites with Mediate.com in 1996, adoption was swift and enthusiastic. Our self-managed Dynamic Website Systems offered mediators and organizations an affordable way to maintain an online presence with almost no friction.
Our Bay Area connections, combined with relationships at Pepperdine Law School, helped fuel early growth and rapid innovation. In late 1995, John and I debated which domain name to choose. We selected Mediate.com, which John secured for $200. In hindsight, of course, we should have purchased every related domain—including Mediation.com—and perhaps “a few nouns” also, but our “worldwide web brains” had not yet so fully matured.
Over time, we did develop multiple brands under the Mediate.com umbrella, helping broaden the reach of the online dispute resolution field.
In a way, John’s plumbing background was the perfect metaphor for our evolving work. For years, I described what we were building as digital plumbing—the infrastructure allowing information to flow: email, attachments, websites, track changes, docu-sign, and more. Each new development expanded the pipes, improved the flow, and enabled better communication.
Today, with AI, the situation has changed in at least two profound ways:
John Helie in his prized MG
We are entering a new era of mediation. An era where infrastructure and insight evolve together—and where mediators equipped with both can help participants reach deeper understanding and more optimal outcomes.
To check out Jonathan Rodrigues’ recent
interview of John and Jim,
click here
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