SCIWAY News, No. 11 – April 1998

In This Issue

1. First "Ask SCIway" Forums Now Online
2. Meet Our History and Genealogy Moderators
3. New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites
4. SC Department of Commerce, SCIway Featured by Bizsites
5. SCIway To Feature "South Carolina Web Site of the Day"
6. South Carolina's Code of Laws Now Online
7. Spartanburg County Public Library Adds State's 20th Web Catalog
8. Upcoming Festivals, Shows, Events
9. Some Beautiful Pictures of South Carolina Waterfalls

1. First "Ask SCIway" Forums Now Online

In the last two issues of SCIWAY News, I've talked about the need for a Web-based bulletin board where anyone in the world could ask a question about South Carolina, and any interested South Carolinian could answer. I also believe we would all benefit from a well known online location where South Carolinians could easily share information with each other.

"Ask SCIway," the service I hope will meet these needs, is now online. You can find it by going to SCIWAY's home page (https://www.sciway.net) and clicking the dark blue Ask SCIway button. (Please click your browser's Refresh or Reload button first.) This initial version of Ask SCIway includes seven "forums." Four of these forums are for posting questions and information about South Carolina history and genealogy. The other three are "feedback forums" where you can post comments and suggestions about Ask SCIway, SCIWAY News, and the SCIway Web site.

Anyone can read the messages posted on Ask SCIway. But if you want to ask a question or post other information, you will need to register first. This process–which is required by the software we're using–costs nothing, takes about a minute, and does not require you to reveal any information about yourself.

Once you've registered, you can ask a question or join an ongoing discussion thread by choosing the appropriate forum and clicking a "Post new topic" or "Post reply" button.

Ask SCIway is an experiment–I don't know of another state that has anything like it. Because it's a new idea, it probably won't take off like a rocket. But I do know that there are LOTS of people on the Internet who want to ask questions about South Carolina, and I hope many of you will stop by regularly to help answer their questions. and if you would like to serve as a moderator for a new forum, please let me know.

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2. Meet Our History and Genealogy Moderators

All Ask SCIWAY forums are monitored and guided by one or more volunteer moderators. These moderators can answer questions about their respective forums and edit or delete inappropriate messages.

Our South Carolina history forums will be monitored by Cricket Jenkins, James Rhodes, and Peter Wilkerson. Gene Jeffries will moderate the genealogy forums.

Cricket Jenkins is the office manager for the Forest Resources Systems Institute in Clemson. She was born and raised in Anderson, and now lives in nearby Starr. Cricket is beginning to develop a Web site for the Institute, and she's also a computer science major at Limestone College.

James Rhodes is a financial analyst for First Union Corporation. While he currently lives in Charlotte, he grew up in Laurens County and returns home often.

Peter Wilkerson is the senior archivist at the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston. Originally from College Park, Georgia (which is near Atlanta), he now lives on James Island. Peter has developed the Historical Society's popular Web site and online catalogs (http://schistory.org/) as well as SCIWAY's history section (https://www.sciway.net).

Gene Jeffries was born in McRae, Georgia, but his ancestors lived in Orangeburg and he has lived in Columbia since 1969. He served in the United States Navy for 20 years, then worked for the South Carolina Department of Corrections for 12 more. Gene is the Webmaster for the Orangeburgh German-Swiss Genealogical Society's Web site (http://www.ogsgs.org/), and he moderates the Society's online discussion group (listserv).

I am grateful to Cricket, Gene, James, and Peter not only for volunteering to serve as moderators, but for helping test Ask SCIway. They have saved Ask SCIway users considerable time and frustration ... and me even greater embarrassment!

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3. New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites

Amateur Radio Clubs

https://www.sciway.net/org/radio.html

Easley City Government

http://cityofeasley.net/

Family Information Network - Clemson University

http://www.clemson.edu/FIN/ - page no longer exists

Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests

http://www.fs.usda.gov/scnfs/

Greenville Downtown Transportation Master Plan Study

This Web page no longer exists.

Myrtle Beach Speedway

http://www.myrtlebeachspeedway.com

Palmetto Journal - online South Carolina political news

http://www.palmettojournal.com/ - site no longer exists

SC Prevents - information on alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse

http://www.daodas.state.sc.us/

South Carolina Archives and History Center + map to new location

http://scdah.sc.gov

South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club

http://www.sierraclub.org/south-carolina

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4. SC Department of Commerce, SCIway Featured by Bizsites

The South Carolina Department of Commerce's Web site and SCIway are Bizsites' featured websites of the week this week (April 27-May 3). Bizsites (http://www.bizsites.com/ - site no longer exists) has an international audience and is used by corporate executives who are thinking about expanding or relocating their operations. Here is the text of Bizsites' review:

"Instead of a single recommended site, we have a pair of sites that work together to form a great resource for information on South Carolina. The South Carolina Department of Commerce provides a good overview of the business climate throughout the state. The site eschews the flash and technical wizardry found in some other states' promotion efforts to provide a quick and responsive guide for the business location seeker. The Business Overview provides important information on market access and transportation, incentives and taxes, education and training and other important criteria. The only real shortcoming is a quick link to SCIway (pronounced "sky-way" - an acronym for the South Carolina Information Highway). This companion site has a wealth of information, including links and data on specific towns (although not all towns have active links), counties and a top-quality search engine to ease site navigation."

Last year the South Carolina Department of Commerce's Web site (http://www.state.sc.us/commerce) was recognized as the best state department of commerce Web site in the U.S.

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5. SCIway To Feature "South Carolina Web Site of the Day"

Building and maintaining a good Web site requires lots of time and hard work, but it's worth it if the world beats a path to your door. Unfortunately promoting a Web site is as time-consuming and expensive as building one, and so many excellent sites have discouragingly few visitors.

SCIway has a new program that is designed to help publicize South Carolina websites, including SCIway. You can participate in this no-cost "SCIway Partners Program" simply by adding one or more links to SCIway to your Web site. We in turn will add one or more links to your site to SCIway.

In addition, starting May 1st, non-commercial South Carolina websites that have prominent links to SCIway will be featured on our home page as the "South Carolina Web Site of the Day." Government agencies, schools, colleges, and non-profit organizations are eligible.

And beginning June 1st, commercial South Carolina websites that have prominent links to SCIway will be featured as "Business Web Sites of the Week" on the SCIway page of their choice. Five business sites will be featured each week, all week long.

Our first South Carolina Web Site of the Day will be the University of South Carolina (https://sc.edu). While USC certainly doesn't need any help in the publicity department, its websites and campus "Computing Bulletin" have helped thousands of South Carolinians find SCIway, and we appreciate it.

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6. South Carolina's Code of Laws Now Online

In last December's issue of SCIWAY News, I noted that one of the most frequent questions SCIway receives is, "Are South Carolina's laws on the Internet?" The answer then was no.

I'm happy to report that two weeks ago the full text of South Carolina's Code of Laws was added to the General Assembly's Web site (see http://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/statmast.php). This version of the Code is "unannotated" (that is, it does not include notes about the history of a law or judicial decisions affecting it). But it does include the actual text of all South Carolina laws enacted through 1997, and you don't have to pay a penny to access them.

These laws are grouped into 62 "Titles," or subject areas. Click on the Title you're interested in, then browse the "Chapters" that will be listed on your screen. Once you've picked a Chapter, you can use your Web browser's Find or Search capability to explore its contents.

Thanks are due the Legislative Council and Legislative Printing and Information Technology Resources. The former approved putting South Carolina's laws online, and the latter did the work.

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7. Spartanburg County Public Library Adds State's 20th Web Catalog

The Spartanburg County Public Libraries' Web site is now online (see http://www.infodepot.org), and it includes a Web interface to the Libraries' online catalog. Twenty South Carolina libraries now have catalogs that can be directly accessed with Web browsers, and you can easily reach all of them through SCIWAY's "Libraries, archives, and museums" section (https://www.sciway.net/lib/).

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8. Upcoming Festivals, Shows, Events

For the latest information on upcoming South Carolina events, please see https://www.sciway.net/calendar.html.

Lobster Race (plus The Tams) - Aiken, May 1

Mayfest - Columbia, May 1-3

Lynches River Festival - Bishopville, May 2

Newberry College Institute on Electronic Commerce, May 11-12 + June

Armed Forces Week - Charleston, May 11-15

Blue Crab Festival - Little River, May

Catfish Feastival - Ware Shoals, May 22-23

Spoleto Festival USA - Charleston, May 22-June 7

Piccolo Spoleto - Charleston, May 22-June 7

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9. Some Beautiful Pictures of South Carolina Waterfalls

Since the first time I saw one, I've thought that waterfalls are one of the most beautiful and awesome creations on earth. I can sit and watch them–and listen to them–for hours.

Happily, South Carolina's Upstate has an abundance of waterfalls, a few of which I've visited. But now, thanks to Ben Brooks and Tim Cook, we can all see some exceptional photographs of our state's largest falls through the Internet. Just point your browser to

Ben and Tim took most of these pictures while they were attending Clemson and working with Bob McAnally at the University's Communications Center. Ben is from Seneca and Tim is from Clemson.

Of the 25 waterfalls pictured, 18 are in Oconee County, 5 are in Greenville County, and two are in Pickens County. The names of the falls are almost as interesting as the photographs!

If you plan to view these photographs through a lower speed modem connection, you may want to wait until a time when Internet traffic is lighter (early in the morning, late at night, or Friday afternoons and Saturdays and Sundays). My modem usually connects at 31.2 kbps, and it takes between a minute and a minute and a half for each picture to display. But every picture is worth every second.

Ben and Tim plan to add directions and a map for each waterfall. I hope they are able to do this soon ... because once you've seen the pictures, you really want to go see and hear the real thing.

Note: For additional information about South Carolina's rivers and waterfalls, see https://www.sciway.net/tourism/rivers.html.

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