Ed Summers wrote:
2011/5/10 Kirill Lokshin kirill.lokshin@gmail.com:
The Foundation will help out as it's able, I'm sure; but it has never taken legal responsibility for funding/organizing/etc. the previous Wikimania conferences, and is quite unlikely to do so now, for a variety of legal and financial reasons.
Ok, I didn't know that the Wikimedia Foundation hasn't assumed legal responsibility for previous Wikimania conferences. It seems odd to me, given that Wikimania is the premier event for the foundation. But if that is really the case, it makes perfect sense why there was this rush to incorporate as a non-profit.
Yes, it's an odd situation. The Wikimedia Foundation hosts Wikimania's website(s), owns the Wikimania trademark/logos, does the publicity for Wikimania (to a large extent, at least), and sends quite a bit of its staff to the conference, but does not actively involve itself in preparing/organizing the conference. It's bizarre.
MZMcBride