Figure out plan for maintenance of QGIS STAC browser plugin

[batpad]

We want to setup the QGIS STAC Plugin to be installed and enabled by default into our QGIS setup on VEDA hub as part of #9

Currently, we are installing the STAC plugin from @slesaad's fork, setup here.

This is because the upstream repository seems to have very little activity and we have had trouble merging in PRs with functionality that we would need (even though ideally all that functionality could and should be upstreamed).

Going forward, we would hope that the QGIS STAC plugin becomes a common way for people to browse through relevant STAC catalogs when people are using QGIS in the hub, and we probably would like to add more features to improve the browsing experience, potentially allow for different types of datasets, etc. It seems like long-term, it's probably not a great idea to continue building off this fork in @slesaad's github account, and it would be great to have a clear idea on who is responsible for maintenance, merging PRs, etc.

We should either:

• Move the fork under NASA-IMPACT or wherever is more appropriate to maintain this.
• Work with upstream maintainers to help out with triaging issues and merging PRs

Do we know who maintains https://github.com/stac-utils/qgis-stac-plugin/ and if we could offer help / try and figure this out? cc @wildintellect @geohacker

+cc @yuvipanda

[wildintellect]

Since the upstream is owned by the stac-utils organization, we can bring the question of maintainers and upkeep in the STAC community meetings, the owners or at least admins who could pass responsibility are in those meetings.

More details on the Plugin distribution ownership
https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/qgis_stac/#plugin-details

[geohacker]

Aren't @vincentsarago and @bitner members of stac-utils org? I'll also send a note to Rob.

[vincentsarago]

@geohacker David and I are members not owners

[geohacker]

I've asked Rob if he can add @batpad

[yuvipanda]

The PRs that have been merged are:

1. Support for GDAL related assets stac-utils/qgis-stac-plugin#218 (to support s3://)
2. Add US GHG Center and VEDA STAC connections slesaad/qgis-stac-plugin#2 (which could be submitted upstream as well I think)
3. Allow repo to be installed with pip stac-utils/qgis-stac-plugin#244 which I just made, to allow this package to be installed from pip.

[vincentsarago]

Just asked in Gitter (https://app.gitter.im/#/room/#SpatioTemporal-Asset-Catalog_Lobby:gitter.im) about owner ship of this repo

[batpad]

I see there has recently been a note added to the README: https://github.com/stac-utils/qgis-stac-plugin :

The QGIS STAC API Browser currently lacks funding for maintenance, bug fixes and new features; therefore development will be slow for now. However we’re dedicated to maintaining the project. For assistance or if you have funding to contribute please reach out to Kartoza (info@kartoza.com)

I would suggest we reach out and see how we can help. cc @geohacker

[robbibt]

Hey @batpad, just checking if you heard anything back from Kartoza about the future of this tool? (I think we're hitting the same blockers as you at the moment)