The Reality of Transforming New Urban Communities into Digital Cities in Egypt: Implications, Challenges, Risks, and Future Proposals – Field Social Research

The general objective of the current study was to attempt to identify the positive repercussions resulting from building digital cities, and the challenges and risks affecting the transformation of new urban communities into digital cities in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The study relied on the descriptive analytical approach and the social survey method with a sample, and the study used the questionnaire tool to collect field data, The study was applied to intentional sample of administrative leaders and employees of the New Urban Communities Authority and the New Administrative Capital Authority.   Among the most important results reached by the current study: The most important positive repercussions resulting from building digital cities in Egypt according to the visions of the research sample are represented in improving the services provided by government agencies to citizens, facilitating communication processes between citizens and public, private and security institutions of society, in addition to the speed of obtaining government services with the least effort, time and cost. As for the challenges that hinder the construction of digital cities in Egypt, the most important technical challenges are represented in the lack of a digital infrastructure that includes homes and all public, private and security institutions, roads and services in Egypt, and the disruption of the available digital systems in the country from devices and networks, As for the most important organizational challenges, they are represented in the weakness of the financial budget to generalize the digital transformation in all homes and institutions of the state, and the problem of the weakness of the security system and the law to protect digital systems from hacking and piracy, The most important human challenges are represented in the high rates of technological illiteracy among citizens, and resistance to the culture of modernization and digital transformation for fear of the privacy of data and information. As for the risks that will result from building digital cities, The most important economic risks are disappearance of traditional professions and crafts, and the lack of job security. The most important social risks are the risk of marginalizing individuals with alphabetical and technological illiteracy among citizens and workers, and the fear of the risk of lack of social trust between citizens and government agencies. As for the most important psychological risks, they are the risk of spreading social isolation among citizens, and the risk of not feeling safe towards modern technologies. The most important security risks are the risk of exposing vital information to the state and security institutions' data to the risk of digital hacking, in addition to the risk of breaching citizens' privacy. Finally, the most important technological risks are the risk of systems, devices and digital networks in homes, schools and government institutions being disrupted, in addition to the complexity of electronic services and citizens' refusal to deal with them. As for the most important future proposals that should be implemented to make digital city projects in Egypt successful, they are represented in transforming the traditional infrastructure into a digital infrastructure, and preparing training programs for all employees in state institutions on digitization skills and the use of modern technologies.