In 1998, S. A. Slama, a well-known columnist in Egypt, stated that ‘any country, institution or individual who wants to catch up with the advanced world should use the Internet’ (Slama 1998: 10). Yet in the year 2000, when research for this chapter began, only 450,000 Egyptians had Internet access (July 2000 estimates, http://www.internetworldstats.com). A study by Madar Research, however, suggested that Internet penetration rates in the Middle East were notoriously unreliable, because they failed to take into account Internet use at a public access point (Madar Research 2002). Perhaps the Internet was more important to Egyptian citizens than counting IP addresses indicated?

With this question in mind, I travelled to Egypt (initially in 2000, with two follow-up research trips in 2004 and 2013) to learn about public awareness and use of the Internet. I also wanted to see if the government was attempting to bridge the digital divide, and to see if Internet cafés and community access points were providing more connectivity than aggregate statistics suggested. I also wanted to interview government officials, business professionals and international aid workers to understand the motivations of those building an IT infrastructure in Egypt. Moreover, participant observation and interviews with Internet café users aimed to explore Egypt's emerging Internet culture.

What I found is that although the technocratic elite saw the Internet as a vehicle for job creation and capital accumulation, citizens viewed the Internet as a tool with which to achieve a better, more informed life.