[Incubator] motion: qfield recommendation for osgeo community project initiative
Nick Bearman
nick at nickbearman.com
Thu May 7 04:08:45 PDT 2026
So far, just one more vote. Thanks Mike!
current status: +6
- Angelos Tzotsos +1
- Arnulf Christl +1
- Bob (CI-StPaul) Basques
- Brian M Hamlin
- Daniel Morissette +1
- Dimitris Kotzinos
- Frank Warmerdam
- Jo Cook
- Jody Garnett
- Michael Smith +1
- Nick Bearman +1
- Regina Obe +1
- Steve Lime
- Tom Kralidis
Happy to leave this open for another week (to 14th May).
Please vote!
As a reminder, Voting consists of +1 (approval), +0 (slight agreement),
-0 (slight disagreement), -1 (against).
More details at
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Incubation_Committee#Committee_Operation.
Best wishes,
Nck.
On 02/04/2026 13:45, Michael Smith wrote:
>
> +1 Mike
>
> --
>
> Michael Smith
>
> RSGIS Center – ERDC CRREL NH
>
> US Army Corps
>
> *From: *Incubator <incubator-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of
> Nick Bearman via Incubator <incubator at lists.osgeo.org>
> *Reply-To: *Nick Bearman <nick at nickbearman.com>
> *Date: *Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 8:43 AM
> *To: *<incubator at lists.osgeo.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [Incubator] motion: qfield recommendation for osgeo
> community project initiative
>
> Hi all:
>
> Apologies, I made an administrative error with the previous motion,
> including votes for Michael, Steve and Tom which were actually for POLAR.
>
> So I will extend this this motion, I suggest by a week for Michael,
> Steve and Tom (and anyone else who wishes to) to vote.
>
> current status:
>
> - Angelos Tzotsos +1
> - Arnulf Christl +1
> - Bob (CI-StPaul) Basques
> - Brian M Hamlin
> - Daniel Morissette +1
> - Dimitris Kotzinos
> - Frank Warmerdam
> - Jo Cook
> - Jody Garnett
> - Michael Smith
> - Nick Bearman +1
> - Regina Obe +1
> - Steve Lime
> - Tom Kralidis
>
> https://gitea.osgeo.org/osgeo/projects-support/issues/9
>
> I will be away at the deadline (9th April) and not returning to this
> type of work until 30th April. So if someone else wants to pick up the
> bat, please do. Otherwise I will work on this at the end of April.
>
> Best wishes,
> Nick.
>
> On 26/03/2026 15:50, Nick Bearman via Incubator wrote:
>
> So far we have 1 votes. Probably because I put a lot of preamble
> before the voting, sorry!
>
> We need 7 to pass, so please vote before the deadline, Thurs 2nd
> April.
>
> Or ask questions if you have any!
>
> Thanks,
> Nick.
>
> Therefore I propose to make a motion to accept QField as an OSGeo
> Community Project
>
> The motion is held open for two weeks until Thursday 2 April and
> requires at least 50% quorum from the following Committee Members:
>
>
> - Angelos Tzotsos
> - Arnulf Christl
> - Bob (CI-StPaul) Basques
> - Brian M Hamlin
> - Daniel Morissette
> - Dimitris Kotzinos
> - Frank Warmerdam
> - Jo Cook
> - Jody Garnett
> - Michael Smith +1
> - Nick Bearman +1
> - Regina Obe
> - Steve Lime +1
> - Tom Kralidis +1
>
> On 19/03/2026 16:02, Nick Bearman via Incubator wrote:
>
> All of the links and details are still valid.
>
> From 9th May 2023
> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/incubator/2023-May/004656.html
>
> This motion did not pass in the allocated time. I would
> like to ask
> another volunteer to review.
>
> We had one question come up during voting on license
> compatibility that is
> interesting but may not be suitable for public discussion.
>
> Jody
>
> The licensing question was:
> https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/incubator/2023-April/004648.html
>
> I don't get to vote, but I have had a question about
> qfield for a long
> time that I have never seen an answer for. I am 99% sure I
> have asked
> about it on one of the qgis lists in the past.
>
> The license for qgis is GPL2, and qfield has the same
> license. qfield
> appears to contain qgis code. That's all fine.
>
> The android app is distributed under GPL2 presumably, but
> I don't see
> that mentioned in the google play store. That's a minor
> issue and
> easily fixed, assuming that there aren't proprietary
> android libraries
> (e.g. Google Play services) bundled in.
>
> The iOS app is presumably also GPL2, but as I understand
> it, that's not
> allowed in the apple app store, and the Apple app store's
> terms prohibit
> redistribution of the app one obtains, which is
> incompatible with GPL2.
> Often software that was Free before it goes into the Apple
> app store has
> a special license from the copyright holders to be able to be
> distributed under the non-Free license required by Apple.
> But with code
> from qgis -- since it has no such exception -- I don't
> understand how
> this is working.
>
> Thus, I don't understand the licensing situation. My specific
> questions:
>
> Is the license for qfield straight GPL2, as the repo
> indicates, or
> something else?
>
> Does qfield contain qgis code, such that it's a derived work?
>
> If so, is qgis straight GPL2?
>
> Is the Android binary under GPL2, with only Free software
> as sources?
>
> Is the iOS binary on gitub under GPL2, with only Free
> software as
> sources?
>
> How is the iOS binary being distributed in the Apple app
> store?
>
> Thanks,
> Greg
>
> I don't know the details of the licensing question, or whether
> this is still valid.
>
> Therefore I propose to make a motion to accept QField as an
> OSGeo Community Project
>
> The motion is held open for two weeks until Thursday 2 April and
> requires at least 50% quorum from the following Committee Members:
>
> |- Angelos Tzotsos|
>
> |- Arnulf Christl|
>
> |- Bob (CI-StPaul) Basques|
>
> |- Brian M Hamlin|
>
> |- Daniel Morissette|
>
> |- Dimitris Kotzinos|
>
> |- Frank Warmerdam|
>
> |- Jo Cook|
>
> |- Jody Garnett|
>
> |- Michael Smith|
>
> |- Nick Bearman +1|
>
> |- Regina Obe|
>
> |- Steve Lime|
>
> |- Tom Kralidis|
>
> I am happy with this, and am starting with a +1
>
> Thanks
> Nick.
>
> On 27/01/2026 17:46, Angelos Tzotsos via Incubator wrote:
>
> https://gitea.osgeo.org/osgeo/projects-support/issues/9
>
> On 4/21/23 20:34, Jody Garnett wrote:
>
> I would like to make a motion:
> Recommending QField for the osgeo community
> project program.
>
> The motion is held open for two weeks, until May 5th
> 2023.
>
> - Bob (CI-StPaul) Basques
> - Arnulf Christl
> - Jo Cook
> - Jody Garnett +1 (initial motion)
> - Dimitris Kotzinos
> - Tom Kralidis
> - Michael Smith
> - Steve Lime
> - Daniel Morissette
> - Frank Warmerdam
> - Angelos Tzotsos
>
>
> Checking the project against our requirements
> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Incubation_Committee#Step_2:_Join_Community_Projects_Program>
> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Incubation_Committee#Step_2:_Join_Community_Projects_Program>
>
> :
>
> 1. Be geospatial
> - Confirm by checking README or project description
> - project page on the osgeo website
> - We ask projects have some user documentation, for
> example an OSGeo Live
> quickstart
>
> Most of this was checked for website requirements.
> There is nice user
> documentation (https://docs.qfield.org/get-started/).
>
>
> 2. Have a free license or an open source license.
> - The license must be OSI approved
> - We ask that the project team check the file headers
> and double check the
> license has been appropriately applied
>
> GPL2 is provided in docs
> (https://docs.qfield.org/get-started/license/) and
> source code
> (https://github.com/opengisch/QField/blob/master/LICENSE).
>
>
> The team has automated check that license is applied (
> https://github.com/opengisch/QField/blob/master/scripts/licensecheck.pl)
>
> which is really cool.
>
> 3. Welcome participation and new contributors.
> - We look for a clear contribution policy
> - We ask that the project demonstrate collaboration,
> perhaps with a history
> of bug report or pull requests
> - Projects are required to have a code of conduct
>
> Contribution policy (
> https://github.com/opengisch/QField/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md),
>
> collaboration
> (https://github.com/opengisch/QField/pulls?q=is%3Apr),
> and
> code of conduct (
> https://github.com/opengisch/QField/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md)
> all
> seem in order.
>
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
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>
> --
>
> Nick Bearman
>
> +44 (0) 7717745715
>
> nick at nickbearman.com
>
> Please let me know if I can make any adjustments related to disability or neurodivergence to improve how we interact.
>
> Due to my own life/work balance, you may get emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please do not feel any pressure to respond outside of your own working pattern.
>
>
>
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>
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>
> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
>
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>
> --
>
> Nick Bearman
>
> +44 (0) 7717745715
>
> nick at nickbearman.com
>
> Please let me know if I can make any adjustments related to disability or neurodivergence to improve how we interact.
>
> Due to my own life/work balance, you may get emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please do not feel any pressure to respond outside of your own working pattern.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Incubator mailing list
>
> Incubator at lists.osgeo.org
>
> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>
> --
> Nick Bearman
> +44 (0) 7717745715
> nick at nickbearman.com
> Please let me know if I can make any adjustments related to disability or neurodivergence to improve how we interact.
> Due to my own life/work balance, you may get emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please do not feel any pressure to respond outside of your own working pattern.
>
> _______________________________________________ Incubator mailing list
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> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/incubator
>
--
Nick Bearman
+44 (0) 7717745715
nick at nickbearman.com
Please let me know if I can make any adjustments related to disability or neurodivergence to improve how we interact.
Due to my own life/work balance, you may get emails from me outside of normal working hours. Please do not feel any pressure to respond outside of your own working pattern.
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