Websites cry foul at Government deal

Website operators are crying foul over a deal between the Culture and Heritage Ministry and events website Eventfinder, claiming the ministry is unfairly favouring the company and setting a dangerous precedent.

The ministry will promote New Zealand's cultural events and attractions through Eventfinder's website after abandoning its own controversial events website, NZLive, built at a cost of almost $3 million under the former Labour government.

Eventfinder won the sympathy of National Party MPs after claiming listings on NZLive duplicated its own, and that the former government had ambushed its business model.

The new arrangement represents an ideological lurch. Two ministry staff are providing and moderating content for Eventfinder.

Alastair Thompson, founder of news website Scoop, says the ministry's deal with the private company sets a bad precedent for the use of government information.

"If Eventfinder becomes the default event listing website with a government imprimatur then it makes it very hard for a large number of other websites in the business to compete.

"They are justifiably quite upset about that."

The ministry is effectively handing over its relationships with hundreds of thousands of small organisations throughout New Zealand, he says. "They're saying, 'We think you should deal with Eventfinder'."

Website operators can pull some information from Eventfinder but are required to link back to Eventfinder's page and display Eventfinder's branding on their sites, he says. "These conditions may make it slightly difficult for some people to deal with them."

For example, Ticketek would be hesitant to link back to Eventfinder because it is a competitor in the ticketing market.

Mr Thompson says it is inappropriate the ministry has yet to formalise its agreement with Eventfinder despite the arrangement coming into force in February.

Fraser Carson, owner of Wellington events website Wotzon, fears people will choose to list events through Eventfinder rather than Wotzon. "It sets a really bad precedent for the Government to be funding a funnel of information that goes through one provider."

The Government should develop its own portal through which event information could be sent to all websites on the same terms, he says.

Ministry chief executive Lewis Holden says NZLive has been "rolled into" Eventfinder to cut costs and to provide a user-friendly one-stop shop for event organisers and consumers to list and find information. The ministry could have developed its own portal but it was preferable to use Eventfinder's platform, which lets events organisers upload their own event information, he says.

An independent review of NZLive conducted by former government chief information officer Laurence Millar had recommended the ministry form a partnership with Eventfinder to leverage its technology.

Since it launched in 2006, $2.9 million had been spent on NZLive. The costs of promoting cultural events online would now be markedly lower than what they would have been had the ministry persevered with NZLive, Mr Holden says.

"What we're doing is ensuring the best possible delivery on public policy and objectives through this mechanism. The work we're doing is to broaden and deepen the scope of events and attractions information that we are providing to the public and that's free to all . . . we're ensuring the information that we help put on is available to all website operators."

It is "entirely fair" that Eventfinder is benefiting from the arrangement, Mr Holden says. "It is their technology we're in a sense free-riding on."

The ministry would be delighted to work with other website operators in other ways to promote New Zealand culture and attractions, he says.

The written agreement with Eventfinder is all but signed and no money is changing hands, he says. Eventfinder had agreed to keep listings free and either party could walk away from the deal.

- © Fairfax NZ News