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Open source and the FAIMS3 platform

Fieldmark® is built on FAIMS3, an open-source platform for field data collection, released under the Apache License 2.0: https://github.com/FAIMS/FAIMS3.

Apache 2.0 allows commercial derivatives. Any application built for a single organisation under contract can stay that organisation’s property.

What open source guarantees

Research software has a reputation for poor sustainability, ending when its grant ends. Open-source code, publicly available on GitHub, combined with comprehensive export of your data on demand in open formats, is Fieldmark’s answer to that sustainability challenge.

  • You can leave with your data. Export is a standard function of the product, available throughout an evaluation and a subscription, not a concession negotiated on the way out.
  • Your security people can read the code. They do not have to take our description of it on trust, and neither does a review panel.
  • Sovereignty is a configuration decision. The standard plans run in an Australian server region, and Enterprise can run either in a service region of your choice or on infrastructure you control.
  • FAIR data practice is reachable. Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable: public source code can be referenced in your metadata, and open export formats let your records move on to a national repository or an institutional archive rather than ending their lives inside a vendor’s database.
  • The code outlives any vendor. If this company stopped trading tomorrow, the platform would still be published, still be licensed to you, and still be runnable by you or a provider of your choice.
  • Community support. Electronic Field Notebooks is building a community of contributors who help sustain and develop the codebase. CSIRO, for example, contributes on a significant scale.
  • Responsive development. If Fieldmark is missing a feature or capability that you need, you can create or upvote an issue on GitHub for our team, or develop the feature yourself and lodge a pull request.

Who else builds on it

Fieldmark is not the only product built on FAIMS3. CSIRO is building DASS, a system for post-disaster impact assessment.

Bolgiaten Limited is building GroundSight, a system for engineering inspection and materials testing, on the same upstream platform, with the development commissioned from our team.

Our experience has demonstrated FAIMS to be an excellent foundation for sophisticated, industry-specific digital products such as GroundSight™, and I would recommend it highly.

Professor Paul J. Morrissey, Chairperson, Bolgiaten Limited, 2026. The statement in full is on custom applications.

Running the upstream yourself

FAIMS3, the upstream project, can be run by anyone with the infrastructure and expertise to operate it independently: https://github.com/FAIMS/FAIMS3.

Running the upstream FAIMS3 platform yourself is community-supported, and the servers are only part of it: you would also publish and maintain your own builds of the mobile app on Google Play and the App Store, keep them current as store requirements change, and answer the security and privacy questions those stores raise. A self-hosted Enterprise plan allows you to run Fieldmark on your own infrastructure, supported by our team, with the published apps still ours to maintain.

What a Fieldmark plan buys

Every plan runs the same open-source platform. You pay for hosting, the apps published in the stores, and support from our team. See pricing for plan options, or talk to us about custom applications if you need a system of your own built on the platform.