A Message of Gratitude to the QGIS and QField Communities
I’m working and studying in an African context. As a student, I had no access to computers. My passion for GIS was sparked through Google Earth mobile—a simple tool that opened a world of possibilities. Now, as a professional, I’m teaching GIS at the University of Kindia. I have 230 students in the same classroom, yet only 20 computers available. GIS cannot be learned effectively under these conditions, and these students feel excluded from a science that could transform their futures. I want to do everything I can to give them a meaningful, practical experience with GIS.
This is when I discovered QField. I consider it the most democratic approach to GIS—not merely as a data collection tool, but as a nearly complete GIS solution that works on mobile devices. I created a simple project to show my students how real-time, map-driven navigation works, what geometries and rasters look like, and how they can digitize features and collect spatial information.
I saw a spark light up in their eyes. I witnessed the profound sense of belonging—the feeling of being part of something greater. For that moment of awakening, I must thank the QField and QGIS teams and community.
What would truly transform their learning is this: I want my students to build their own layers from scratch—to choose layer names, select geometries (points, lines, polygons), create fields with appropriate data types, apply basic symbology, and design simple layouts for their map outputs. These capabilities may seem straightforward to experienced GIS professionals, but for students with limited resources, they would be transformative. They would shift GIS from a tool they use to a science they own.
I don’t know if these features are simple or complex to implement—I’m not a developer. But I know their impact would be profound: they could fundamentally change how students from resource-limited regions access GIS knowledge and develop geospatial literacy.
Thank you for considering this wish.
Dear Mamadou,
Reading your message stopped me in my tracks. This is exactly why we built QField.
When we started, the goal was simple: bring real GIS to the field, on the devices people actually have. But hearing how 230 students in Kindia are now holding a map, digitizing features, and feeling that spark of belonging, that goes far beyond anything we imagined when we wrote the first lines of code.
And the way you describe that moment, seeing the light in your students’ eyes, that is the best feedback any open-source project can receive. No benchmark, no download count, no conference talk comes close.
Thank you for teaching. Thank you for not giving up on your students despite the constraints. And thank you for taking the time to write this note.
Marco, and the entire QField team