Locate Press published an updated edition of "Desktop GIS: Mapping the Planet with Open Source Tools" written by the creator of Quantum GIS.

This is great news, and it is a direct result of this week's mass protests. Together, we reminded the U.S. Congress who it works for. EFF alone helped users send more than 1,000,000 emails to Congress, and countless more came from other organizations.

Here's why we love the world's most configurable desktop. TechRadar rain positivity onto the world's most configurable desktop and pick out some of its best functions and applications...

If you know a Boston-area company or institution that could offer us colocated hosting and bandwidth, FSF could use your help! This is a great opportunity for a company or institution to give back to the free software community, and make a direct, tangible contribution to free software development.

Schools should foster curiosity and the spirit enquiry in an environment that encourages students to learn. A classroom running proprietary software cannot provide this.

In what it calls "an unprecedented decision" by the community, the non-profit organisation confirmed that it will blackout the English version of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia for 24 hours on Wednesday 18 January 2012 from 05:00 GMT.

Even though the New York Times reported that the White House statement "all but kill[s] current versions of the legislation," the Senate is still poised to bring PIPA to the floor next week, and we can expect SOPA proponents in the House to try to revive the legislation—unless they get the message that these initiatives must stop, now.

2011 was also the year when all of the major Linux vendors started focusing on alternate platforms, on multiple devices, and started integrating cloud services into their products. There was a flurry of cross-platform apps that you could run on the desktop as well as on your mobile phone. These and other developments in 2011 have set up a wonderful platform for 2012.