Methodology & Transparency Center
Our Mission
SCDIA tracks digital infrastructure projects — data centers, broadband expansion, fiber networks, and cable landings — across all 46 South Carolina counties. We serve as a neutral, nonpartisan public information resource that helps communities understand what is being built, who is building it, and how to participate in decisions that shape their future.
What We Track
- • Data center projects (hyperscale, colocation, edge, cable landing)
- • Broadband and fiber infrastructure expansion
- • Utility providers (electric, water, telecommunications)
- • County and municipal government actions (zoning, permitting, incentives)
- • Economic development announcements and public meetings
- • Evidence sources: government documents, planning filings, news reports, regulatory filings
What We Do Not Track
- • Private individual information or personal data
- • Internal corporate strategy or proprietary business plans
- • Political endorsements or partisan advocacy positions
- • National security or classified infrastructure
- • Speculative projects without any public documentation
How the Version 1 Baseline Was Created
The statewide baseline was built using a deterministic population engine that researched each of South Carolina's 46 counties individually. For each county, the engine:
- Conducted structured research using public web sources and government records
- Persisted findings as an immutable County Research Artifact
- Generated a proposed batch of canonical records (projects, organizations, evidence, timeline events, relationships)
- Performed a non-destructive dry run to validate all proposed changes
- Required explicit approval bound to a cryptographic batch hash before any canonical write
- Executed approved writes, then reran the identical batch to verify idempotency (zero new creates or updates)
- Validated that all created records are readable and consistent
All 46 counties completed this process with zero exceptions, zero idempotency failures, and zero destructive writes, achieving Level 4 Statewide Certification.
Source Selection & Evidence Hierarchy
Primary sources (government documents, ordinances, meeting minutes, regulatory filings, utility filings, permits) are preferred over secondary reporting.
Secondary sources (news articles, economic development announcements) are used when primary sources are unavailable or to provide additional context.
Tertiary sources (industry reports, academic research) supplement primary and secondary sources but are never the sole basis for a factual claim.
Every factual claim is linked to its source URL, publisher, publication date, and a supporting excerpt where available.
Confidence Levels
- Confirmed — verified against multiple primary sources
- High — supported by a primary source
- Medium — supported by secondary reporting
- Reported — single source, not independently verified
Date Precision
- Day — exact date confirmed
- Month — month and year confirmed
- Year — only year confirmed
- Approximate / Estimated — labeled as approximate
- Unknown — date not available
Numerical Estimates
Investment amounts, job counts, acreage, square footage, and power requirements are stored as reported by the source. Estimates are labeled as estimates. Ranges remain ranges. Approximate values are never converted to precise figures. If a source reports "$4.2 billion," we display "$4.2 billion" — not "$4,200,000,000." If a source says "approximately 1,200 jobs," we preserve that qualifier. We never present an announced projection as an accomplished result.
Duplicate Prevention & Relationship Construction
Each canonical entity type uses a deterministic identity key (e.g., project name + company + county). Before any record is created, the engine checks for an existing record with the same identity key. Proposed duplicates are flagged, not silently overwritten. Higher-confidence data is never replaced by lower-confidence data.
Relationships between entities (e.g., an organization operates a project) are constructed using identity-key matching, not manual entry. Each relationship carries a logical key and a discovery method so it can be verified and reproduced.
Editorial Review & Correction Process
Every canonical record undergoes automated public-readiness checks before publication. Records that pass are published. Records with warnings are published with qualifications. Records with critical issues are withheld pending human review.
Members of the public can submit corrections, identify missing projects, share public sources, or ask questions. Submissions are reviewed by SCDIA editors and, if accepted, flow through the same deterministic batch process before any canonical record is updated.
Update Frequency
Active and under-construction projects are reviewed every 30 days. Proposed projects every 60 days. Operating projects every 90 days. County profiles every 90 days. Organization profiles every 180 days. Evidence links are checked every 90 days. An incremental monitoring engine watches county council agendas, planning commission filings, and news sources for new developments between full reviews.
Certification
Level 4 statewide certification confirms that all 46 South Carolina counties completed SCDIA's documented population, validation, provenance, and reconciliation process. It does not guarantee that every external source is complete, that every reported claim is correct, or that public information will not change.
Limitations
- • Some counties may have projects that were not publicly announced at the time of research.
- • Investment and job figures are as reported by sources and may change over time.
- • Source URLs may become unavailable; SCDIA preserves excerpt evidence to maintain provenance.
- • The platform does not endorse any project, company, or policy position.
- • Data quality depends on the availability and accuracy of public records.