Editing Need to Know (newsletter)

{{Short description|Defunct email newsletter (1997–2007)}}
{{External links|date=April 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}

'''Need To Know''', also known as '''NTK''', was an [[email]] [[newsletter]], published late on Fridays, written by former ''[[Wired Magazine|Wired]]'' journalist and ''[[Irish Times]]'' columnist [[Danny O'Brien (journalist)|Danny O'Brien]] and former ''Wired'' and [[Future Plc|Future]] journalist [[Dave Green (journalist)|Dave Green]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mackintosh|first1=Hamish|title=Talk Time: Dave Green|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/oct/16/onlinesupplement|website=The Guardian|date=16 October 2003|accessdate=30 January 2016}}</ref> It was devised in 1996 while Green and O'Brien worked at ''Wired''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.spesh.com/ntk/ |date=2000-11-10 |title=NTK: Need To Know |quote=Here's our manifesto for the print version from 1996, originally planned during the dying moments of our encarceration at Wired}}</ref> NTK was published weekly from 1997 until 2004, when it moved to fortnightly publication. From May 2005 until July 2006 it continued on a monthly schedule, though it often ran late; the final newsletter on the website is a "MiniNTK" dated 8 January 2007.

The newsletter billed itself as "''the'' weekly tech update for the UK" (later "week[[Backspace#.5EH|^H^H^H^H]] fortnightly" or "week^H^H^H^H now-monthly") and presented the highlights of the week's happenings in the [[Information Technology|IT]], [[blogosphere]] and general [[internet]] community, with a focus on [[United Kingdom|UK]] culture and politics. It also looked at less weighty matters such as confectionery and nudity in films. It took an irreverent tone similar to ''[[The Register]]'', ''[[Private Eye]]'' and ''[[Viz (comics)|Viz]]''.

==Format==
The newsletter is also available on the World Wide Web and has used a fixed-width [[ASCII]] text-based layout since its inception. It was sent to subscribers in [[plain text]] email. Since 2004, the website has offered readers the ability to use their own [[Cascading Style Sheets|style sheet]].

Each newsletter comprised (at least some of) the following sections:
* An [[ASCII art]] representation of the letters "NTKnow", along with the strapline and date.
* An ironic or amusing quote of the week, not seen since April 2005, when NTK was weekly.
* '''HARD NEWS''': Important, but not necessarily mainstream, news stories from the IT world during that week. Each story is accompanied by [[Uniform Resource Locator|URL]]s for further reading.
* '''ANTI-NEWS''', later '''ANTI-MEMES''': A collection of "D'Oh!"s; errors in mainstream news articles such as using the wrong image for a story, typos, inappropriate web adverts, meta-information for editors or page filler that was accidentally published unedited, or even outright nonsense like "''[[Space Shuttle Columbia|Columbia]]'': shuttle travelling nearly 18 times the speed of light". This section was later spun off into a separate site, ''D'Oh! the humanity!'' (now defunct). From 2002 onwards, the section also intermittently included themed lists of "google goofs": [[Google]] results for searches using misspellings such as "[[First aid kit|first aid tit]]" or "[[Penny-farthing|penny farting]]".
* '''EVENT QUEUE''': Events to attend that may be of interest to technologically minded people. This included visits to the UK by [[open source]] leaders, [[sci-fi]] conventions and blogging conferences, as well as talks and seminars by the NTK writers and their friends. The selections were frequently [[London]]-centric, attracting criticism from readership living [[Watford Gap|north of Watford Gap]], although with O'Brien's move to California, the geographical range of events covered widened; [[Burning Man]] usually merited an annual mention.
* '''TRACKING''': Focussed on interesting, useful, or just plain esoteric software. The selection was not limited to any particular platform; software for [[Linux]], [[Microsoft Windows]] and [[Mac OS X]] all features regularly, and occasionally software for the [[Commodore 64|C64]] and [[ZX Spectrum]], such as a mini TCP/IP stack, was included if it was particularly interesting or could be mocked in an amusing fashion. The section also sometimes included reviews of web-services like [[BugMeNot]] rather than conventional software.
* '''MEMEPOOL''': like [[Memepool]], a collection of the week's best [[Internet meme]]s.
* '''GEEK MEDIA''': short synopses of [[television]] programmes or [[film]]s that are of interest to a geek audience. Films also include [[BBFC]] ratings for added irony.
* After the geek media section, there was a schedule of rotating extra items, including "Confectionery Theory" (reviewing new [[candy|sweets]] upon their arrival in the UK, later outsourced to snackspot.org.uk), "feebdack" (as a form of letters page; the title referring to a coinage in [[Rudy Rucker]]'s [[The Hacker and the Ants]]), "boners" (correction of errors in NTK itself), and an occasional music review section.
* '''SMALL PRINT''': Other than containing the basic meta-information that NTK is a newsletter, published every week, etc., this section always included the motto "THEY STOLE OUR REVOLUTION. NOW WE'RE STEALING IT BACK" and the phrase "Registered at the Post Office as", which is usually completed by an oblique reference to another website or publication that has itself referenced NTK, Danny or Dave. For example, it linked to their Wikipedia article in October 2004.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2004/10/01/#SMALL_PRINT |title=Need to Know 2004-10-01 |date=2004-10-01}}</ref>

==Significant events==
;February 1998:NTK launched the Falco competition, named after the rock star [[Falco (musician)|Falco]] who died that week. Readers were encouraged to email their predictions of which technology companies would fail ([[dot-bomb]]s), and NTK would proclaim "FALCO" with the list of accurate tipsters when announcing that companies had actually failed. This practise predated [[Fucked Company]] by two years.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/1998/02/13/ |title=Need To Know 1998-02-13 |date=1998-02-13}}</ref>
;December 1998: NTK launched {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20000304001951/http://www.stand.org.uk/ STAND.org.uk]}} (now defunct), a UK campaign group lobbying for fair UK internet policy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/1998/12/11/ |title=Need To Know 1998-12-11 |date=1998-12-11}}</ref>
;February 2000: NTK launched [https://web.archive.org/web/20000526101815/http://www.kevinwarwick.org.uk/ ''Kevin Warwick Watch''] (now defunct) in reaction to [[Kevin Warwick]]'s sudden popularity in the mainstream press.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2000/02/18/ |title=Need To Know 2000-02-18 |date=2000-02-18}}</ref>
;September 2000: NTK launched a "drily ironic t-shirt competition", where readers can come up with amusing T-shirt designs and NTK can sell the results back to them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2000/09/01/ |title=Need To Know 2000-09-01 |date=2000-09-01}}</ref>
;December 2000: NTK launched "Fax your MP", now known as [[WriteToThem]]. They also launched their own ironic T-shirt sales site [https://web.archive.org/web/20010517004454/http://www.cybercandy.co.uk/ntk/ ''NTKMart''] (now defunct) with the first winner of their competition: "I got £80million in venture capital for my .com idea and all I have left is this lousy t-shirt".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2000/12/01/ |title=Need To Know 2000-12-01 |date=2000-12-01}}</ref>
;August 2001: NTK published the now infamous [http://www.ntk.net/ballmer/mirrors.html "dancemonkeyboy" video] of [[Steve Ballmer]] dancing to [[Gloria Estefan]] music at a developer conference.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2001/08/03/ |title=Need To Know 2001-08-03 |date=2001-08-03}}</ref>
;June 2002: NTK hosted their own conference, [https://web.archive.org/web/20040926052238/http://www.xcom2002.com/ X-COM 2002].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2002/06/07/ |title=Need To Know 2002-06-07 |date=2002-06-07}}</ref>
;March 2003: NTK launched [https://web.archive.org/web/20041119055417/http://www.snackspot.org.uk/ snackspot.org.uk] (now defunct).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2003/03/28/ |title=Need To Know 2003-03-28 |date=2003-03-28}}</ref>
;June 2004: NTK hosted another conference, [https://web.archive.org/web/20040704081524/http://www.xcom2002.com/nc04/ NotCon '04].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2004/06/04/ |title=Need To Know 2004-06-04 |date=2004-06-04}}</ref>
;August 2004: NTK launched [https://web.archive.org/web/20040806160351/http://www.xcom2002.com/doh/viewer.php dohthehumanity.com] (now defunct).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2004/08/06/ |title=Need To Know 2004-08-06 |date=2004-08-06}}</ref>
;September 2005: NTK launched the [[Open Rights Group]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntk.net/2005/09/02/ |title=Need To Know 2005-09-02 |date=2005-09-02}}</ref>
==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.ntk.net Need To Know website], includes archive of all past newsletters

[[Category:British news websites]]
[[Category:Publications established in 1997]]
[[Category:1997 establishments in the United Kingdom]]