SCIWAY News, No. 26 – July 2000

I am happy to report that we haven't fallen off the face of the planet. We've just been making lots of changes to the SCIway Web site ... creating new South Carolina online resources ... and struggling to figure out how to support SCIway financially. We still have a long way to go on all these fronts, but we've made enough progress to tend to SCIWAY News again. I hope you enjoy this issue and find it useful.

This issue is sponsored by Jamie Iriel, the owner of Outpost Moe's, which is located on the Ashepoo River in Colleton County. I can tell you from personal experience that Jamie's guided kayak tours of the ACE Basin's rivers and rice plantation creeks are a treat for the senses and a magic ride into the Lowcountry's past.

In This Issue

SCIway Adds High Quality SC County Maps
New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites
New SCIway Advertisers
Learn about South Carolina Political Candidates Online
A Low-Cost Alternative for SC Businesses That Don't Have Web Sites
Webcams: South Carolina Windows
Summer Cleaning at SCIWAY News
New Statewide Calendar: Festivals, Conferences, Reunions, and More
Upcoming Festivals and Events
Surprise of the Month: High-Class Trash

SCIWAY News is a free, concise email newsletter that will keep you informed about what's happening on South Carolina's Information Highway. It is usually published once a month and spotlights new and notable South Carolina websites. If you find SCIWAY News useful, please forward this issue to others who are interested in South Carolina. But if you don't want to receive any more issues, just send the word "unsubscribe" to news@sciway.net.

1. SCIway Adds High Quality SC County Maps

One of the best things we've done this year has been to create new, high quality maps for South Carolina's 46 counties. You can find these maps at https://www.sciway.net/maps/cnty/ ... and you are welcome to link to as many of these pages as you like.

Please check your county's map. If you see that we've made a mistake or omitted a town or community, please write service@sciway.net, and we'll do our best to make the correction or addition. (The areas around larger cities are sometimes too crowded for us to label every nearby community.)

Each county map includes a link to SCIWAY's directory of websites for that county. If you know of a site or another map we should add to these pages, please send us its address.

These maps were created by Kasey Briggs (http://kaseydesigns.com), a Charleston friend who has been contributing to SCIway since we began working on it in late 1995.

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2. New and Notable South Carolina Web Sites

Aiken SeniorNet Learning Center - for computers and the Internet: http://library.usca.edu/seniornet/ - site no longer exists
City of Bennettsville - South Carolina's "First" Great Town: http://www.bennettsvillesc.com
Central Carolina Technical College - Sumter: http://www.cctech.edu/
Charleston Stage Company and the Dock Street Theatre: http://www.charlestonstage.com
ColumbiaLatino.Com - Spanish language guide to the Midlands: http://www.columbialatino.com - site no longer exists
DanielIsland.Org - daily news, community info, online forums: http://danielisland.org
Directory of Historical Records Repositories in South Carolina: http://shrab.palmettohistory.org/repository/repositories.htm - site no longer exists
Greater Summerville-Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce: http://www.greatersummerville.org/
Hemingway, SC - Barbeque Capital of the World: http://hemingwaysouthcarolina.com; http://townofhemingway.com
South Carolina Baptist Convention: http://www.scbaptist.org
South Carolina Secretary of State - useful info: https://sos.sc.gov/

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3. New SCIway Advertisers

Alfie's Compliments - Columbia - perfect gifts, perfect prices: http://www.alfies-baskets.com - site no longer available
Days Inn Historic District - Charleston - affordable comfort - site no longer available
Quality Data Solutions - Greenville - network consulting, websites: http://www.qualitydatasolutions.com - site no longer available
ShopCharleston.net - gifts, foods, art, sweet grass baskets, & more: http://www.shopcharleston.net - site no longer available

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4. Learn about South Carolina Political Candidates Online

For the next few weeks newspapers and television networks will be focusing lots of attention on the Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions. But the elections that affect our daily lives the most–our local, state, and Congressional races–will receive much less publicity.

To make it easier for South Carolinians to learn about South Carolina candidates, SCIway has created an Election 2000 page that links to campaign websites (https://www.sciway.net/gov/election2000.html - site no longer exists). This page already has links to 40 SC candidate sites–as well as to election district maps, county and state political parties, and voter registration information.

If you know of a South Carolina political Web site that is not on SCIWAY's Election 2000 page, please send its address to service@sciway.net, and we will be happy to add it. There is no charge for this service.

Also, if you publish a South Carolina Web site and would like to link to SCIWAY's Election 2000 page, you are welcome to do so–either by using a text link or the blue Election 2000 button on our home page (https://www.sciway.net).

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5. A Low-Cost Alternative for SC Businesses That Don't Have Web Sites

This spring I received a phone call from Lynn Haltiwanger, the Charleston area sales director for Days Inn. She wanted to know if the three Charleston area Days Inns could be listed on SCIWAY's hotel pages, even though they didn't have websites.

The result of our conversation was a new form of SCIway advertising we call a "page-on-a-page." You can see examples on these three pages:

https://www.sciway.net/hotels/charleston.html

page no longer exists

https://www.sciway.net/tourism/mtpleasanthotels.html

page no longer exists

https://www.sciway.net/tourism/northcharlestonhotels.html

page no longer exists

These page-on-a-page ads provide Charleston area Days Inns a highly visible Web presence that search engines can find ... and that the 40,000+ people who will visit these three pages this year can't miss.

For more information about SCIWAY's page-on-a-page ads, please see https://www.sciway.net/join-us/. These ads are an extremely cost effective way to reach people who want what you're selling–and they work just as well if you already have a Web site.

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6. Webcams: South Carolina Windows

One of the small wonders of the Internet is that you can watch what's happening in other parts of the world–right now–thanks to Webcams. Webcams are video cameras that are connected to the Internet. They're often located on tops of buildings or in public places, and they send a new picture to a Web page every few seconds or minutes.

South Carolina has at least 20 Webcams, and we have put links to all of them on https://www.sciway.net/ccr/webcams.html. You can look through these video windows to see what the weather's like in Columbia ... or watch surfers at Folly Beach, strollers on "The Drag" in Myrtle Beach, and Furman students going to class.

If you know of a South Carolina Webcam we've missed or you set up a new one, please send its address to service@sciway.net, and we'll add it to SCIWAY's Webcams page.

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7. Summer Cleaning at SCIWAY News

I know ... most people do spring cleaning. But at SCIway we're always so behind that summer cleaning is about the best we can manage.

In looking through the mailing list for SCIWAY News, I sense that some of you may be included more than once–say, under an old email address and a new one ... or under your home address and your work address. In many cases we know this duplication is intended, and it's certainly fine with us. But if you're receiving more copies of SCIWAY News than you want, please let us know what address we should drop by sending a short message to news@sciway.net.

Likewise, if you simply don't want to receive SCIWAY News at all, please send the word "unsubscribe" to this same address, and we will quickly delete your address from our mailing list

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8. New Statewide Calendar: Festivals, Conferences, Reunions, and More

South Carolina may be a small state geographically, but there's a lot going on here! To make it easier for South Carolinians and visitors to learn about upcoming festivals, conferences, reunions, and other events, we have created a new statewide "South Carolina Calendar" page. To view this annual calendar, simply click the red link at the top of SCIWAY's home page (https://www.sciway.net).

If you would like to add an event to our calendar, please write us at service@sciway.net. There is no charge for a calendar listing, but your event must be of interest to people outside your local community ... and it must have a Web page. This Web page doesn't have to be fancy, but it needs to provide what-when-where, cost, and contact information.

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9. Upcoming Festivals and Events

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

Summer Sizzle Catfish Tournament - Manning - Jul 29-30
South Carolina Peanut Party - Pelion - Aug 11-12
Spitoono - Clemson - Aug 24-26
Southern 500 - Darlington Raceway - Sep 3
Labor Day Festival - Chapin - Sep 2-4
South Carolina Apple Festival and Rodeo - Westminster - Sep 4-9
Kiawah Island Triathalon - Sep 10
Scottish Games and Highland Gathering - Mt Pleasant - Sep 16
Art in the Park - Greenville - Sep 16-17
Delta MUSC Children's Classic - Kiawah Island - golf - Sep 20
Old Time Horse Farmers Gathering - Blackville - Sep 22-23

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10. Surprise of the Month: High-Class Trash

One of the benefits of working on SCIway is that we get to visit lots of great South Carolina websites. But every once in a while, we run across one that's exceptional.

Earlier this month my daughter Robin chanced upon just such a site. It belongs to the Horry County Solid Waste Authority, and you can visit it at http://www.solidwasteauthority.org. (Horry is pronounced OH-ree, and Myrtle Beach is the county's largest city.)

When you get to this site, you'll find it not only attractive and easy to use, but one of the most informative resources anywhere on the Internet. It's more like an online school than a government agency Web site. In fact the home page offers only two navigation choices:

To me at least, it was surprising that a waste management and recycling agency would create such an impressive, education-oriented Web site. So I called Ricky Hardy, the Authority's director of public information, and asked how this happened. He said that the site is a key part of the Authority's continuing effort to help educate primary and elementary school students about the importance of recycling. "We teach the kids, and they teach their parents."

Ricky also said that the Solid Waste Authority wanted "to become a leader in the state in solid waste disposal and recycling education." I believe they have already achieved that goal, and I know they have created a Web site that is a first-rate model for other South Carolina public agencies.

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Copyright © 2000 SCIway, LLC. SCIWAY News^™ is written by Rod Welch of James Island, South Carolina–with a lot of help from people throughout South Carolina. ISSN: 1527-3903. Direct circulation: 35,000+

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SCIway, pronounced "sky-way," is an acronym for South Carolina Information Highway.