Hisham M. Abdelsalam

Social Media in Egyptian Government Websites: Presence, Usage, and Effectiveness

Abstract This paper examines the presence, usage, and effectiveness of Egyptian government social media websites. The adoption of social media technology provides an illustration of the application of New Public Service (NPS) theory to public administration. The first phase of this study examined the presence of social media applications on these government websites. The second phase analyzed the use of Facebook by governmental entities in Egypt. The use of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were the top social media applications in Egyptian government websites, which is consistent with other government surveys of social media found in developed countries. In terms of effectiveness of these social media websites, they were used mainly to post information, with very little two-way interaction between citizens and government. The analysis in this paper shows that social media in Egypt is not much in line with the NPS theory.

Channel choice and the digital divide in e-government: the case of Egypt

This paper examines channel choice and the digital divide in Egyptian electronic government or e-government. Citizens have access to a variety of service delivery channels when they initiate contact with their government, ranging from e-government to more traditional channels such as the phone and in-person visits to a government office. This paper examines the extent of use of both contact channels for citizens and the impact of the digital divide on channel use. A public opinion survey of Egyptian citizens was analyzed, and the results showed that there was a digital divide in the use of e-government by citizens. The digital divide also extended to other contact channels such as the phone and when citizens used multiple contact channels for public service delivery. The results of this study imply that for the development of e-government, especially in the context of a developing country such as Egypt, policy-makers need to understand that e-government is one of many channels that citizens can use when they initiate contact with their government. The results of this study should encourage policy-makers to recognize the importance of public service delivery in a multichannel environment. Shirin Madon is the accepting Associate Editor for this article.

Re-sequencing of Design Processes With Activity Stochastic Time and Cost: An Optimization-Simulation Approach

Background. By the mid-1990s, the importance of the early introduction of new products to both market share and profitability became fully understood. Thus, reducing product time-to-market became an essential requirement for continuous competition. Coupled with the fact that about 70% of the life cycle cost of a product is committed at early design phases, the motivation for developing and implementing more effective methodologies for managing the design process of new product development projects became very strong. Method of Approach. One tool that helps in understanding and analyzing such a project is the design structure matrix (DSM). This paper presents a framework that obtains an optimum sequence of project activities-presented by the DSM-that minimizes total time and cost given stochastic activity estimated time and cost. The framework interfaces a meta-heuristic optimization algorithm called simulated annealing with a commercial risk analysis software. Results. The proposed framework was applied to a design project and the results have shown a robust solution minimum was reached. Conclusions. Since much of the time and cost involved in the design process is attributable to its expensive iterative nature. The framework presented in this paper improves a design project via obtaining an optimum sequence of its activities that minimizes total time and cost.

Optimal sequencing of design projects' activities using discrete particle swarm optimisation

The design structure matrix (DSM) has received considerable attention in literature as a tool that provides a compact and clear representation of activities and the relationships among these activities in product development projects. As much of the time and cost of such projects is attributable to its iterative nature, determining the optimal sequence of project activities for efficient execution becomes a necessity. This paper presents a discrete particle swarm optimisation (DPSO) algorithm that determines the optimal sequence of activities execution within a product development or a design project that minimises project total iterative time. Algorithm performance was compared with published results and outperformed used methods. It was also used to minimise three other objective functions: iterative time/cost, number of feedbacks and total feedback length.

Setback and remedy of local e-government projects: a case study from Egypt

The numbers of successful implementations of e-government projects in developing countries are noticeably low. Yet, there are few studies that focus on the long-term sustainability and success/failure factors of such projects. This paper analyzes the factors responsible for the initial success and subsequent sustainability or setback of a local-government project that was implemented in two sites in Egypt. The findings reveal that although technological, process, and structural factors play a distinctive role in the success or failure of e-government project, the main source of success lies within the management will and actions.

Multi-objective Team Forming Optimization for Integrated Product Development Projects

Integrated product development (IPD) is a holistic approach that helps to overcome problems that arise in complex product development environments. This paper presents a model that aims to support the optimal formulation and assignment of multi-functional teams in IPD organizations - or any project-based organization. The model accounts for limited availability of personnel, required skills, team homogeneity, and, further, maximizes organization’s payoff by formulating and assigning teams to projects with higher expected payoffs. A Pareto multi-objective particle swarm optimization approach was used to solve the model. It allows personnel to work in several concurrent projects and considers both person-job and person-team fit.

A Simulation Model for Managing Marketing Multi-Channel Conflict

In today’s global competition, companies are obliged to go to market using multiple channels of strategy for various reasons. However, channel conflict is inevitable in multi-channel structures causing sharp decreases in the demand of one or more channels. A system dynamic model was developed to simulate the complex multiple channel structure and factors that affect the demand and channel conflict; aiming to simulate the situation of the supplier decision maker who takes fast decisions in one of the various variables that he controls to achieve maximum profits and minimum channel conflict. The model was validated using real data of a major consumer electronics supplier in Egypt that has traditional distributors and Hypermarkets as two different channels. Various policies of inventory allocations in each channel and different promotion rates were tested in order to achieve the objective of maximizing supplier profit and minimizing channel conflict.

Factors Affecting Perceived Effectiveness of Local E-Government in Egypt

An important area of e-government research is how different stakeholders perceive the impact and the use of e-government systems on the different channels of governmental services. The objective of this article is to examine the perceived effectiveness of local e-government systems through a survey of directors in different Egyptian cities. The approach to accomplish this objective is to conduct exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis to determine what factors explain e-government effectiveness. This research adopts a model that uses the citizen-initiated contacts with government literature as a way for understanding e-government effectiveness. Results of an exploratory factor analysis reveal that e-government effectiveness is explained by management capacity, security and privacy, and collaboration. These factors were then analyzed through regression models that indicated that management capacity and security and privacy influenced e-government effectiveness. However, there was no evidence that collaboration had a statistically significant impact on e-government effectiveness. This paper fits into the theme of the special issue since it suggests strategies to better design e-government technology for local governments in Egypt through changes in security, privacy, and management capacity.

Multi-objective Simulated Annealing Algorithm for Partner Selection in Virtual Enterprises

Virtual Enterprise (VE) is a temporary alliance of autonomous enterprises formed to act together to share skills or core competencies and resources in order to respond to a market opportunity. The success of VE strongly depends on its composition, so partner selection can be considered as the most important problem in VE. This paper presents and solves a model for the partner selection problem in VEs that considers two main evaluation criteria; project completion time and total cost. To do so, the paper uses a multi-objective algorithm, namely Pareto Simulated Annealing (PSA). Results showed improved performance of PSA compared to the Tabu Search algorithm used in a recent study.

ICT to enhance administrative performance: a case study from Egypt

Egypt has achieved considerable steps in the use of ICT in administration since the mid 80s. The Egyptian e-Government program - formulated and launched in 2000 - operates on two major axes: (1) providing services through new and easy channels, and (2) updating the systems of governmental work. Since its start, the program developed several pilot projects to probe their feasibility. Many of these projects matured and are currently in the roll out phase. This paper presents work done in one of these projects; work and decision making enhancement in the Investment Department in Matrouh Governorate. The project involved three areas for enhancement: (1) re-engineering of business processes, (2) a Management Information System (MIS) for the governorate administration, and (3) a Geographical Information System (GIS). The paper - briefly - discusses how information and communication technologies were deployed to enhance decision making in one governmental entity in Egypt.