Since the mid 1980s, Egypt has realized significant growth in information and

Selection of hardware and software is a complicated task involving the consideration of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) as well as the expertise of the decision maker. Two MCDM studies examined whether or not expertise in database management systems (DBMS) would facilitate selection among DBMS alternatives. The results of the first study suggest that (I) experts seemed to exhibit more agreement on criterion weights than did novices, (2) experts were about twice as consistent in applying the weights they assigned to the choice task compared to novices, (3) novices tended to rate criteria with scores that were closer to the neutral midpoint than did experts, and (4) experts made different choices than did novices. Consistency was assessed using two different quantitative measures; one was based on ordinality and the other on position. In the second study, concurrent verbal protocols showed that experts tended to bring their own experience to the choice task, were distracted less frequently, and used superior strategies in elimination of weakest alternatives. This implies that staff members with significant domain expertise should be used in DBMS acquisition tasks. Future research should determine whether or not these findings generalize to other task domains.

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Emerging information and communication technology (ICT) is setting the pace for a changing, competitive and dynamic global marketplace and representing an enabling platform for business and socioeconomic development in the 21st century. In that respect, developing nations are urged to keep pace regularly with the developments taking place in the developed world through the design and implementation of strategy, vision and detailed plans for universal access in terms of ICT literacy and its effective utilization for developmental purposes were ICT is promoted as a vehicle for development. It is important to note that building the ICT infrastructure and infostructure will not realize quantum leaps in the development process unless it is coupled with concrete projects and initiatives that engage the society at large with its multiple stakeholders from public, private, government and civil society organizations irrespective of their locations whether urban or remote, gender or background. This chapter describes the evolution of the ICT sector in Egypt over the last decade with an emphasis on national ICT strategy development and deployment as an integral element of Egypt’s overall development process within the context of a an emerging economy and the various growing potentials ICT offers for its socioeconomic development.

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