Educational institutions are today facing increasing pressures due to economic, political and social upheaval. This is only exacerbated by the nature of education as an intangible good which relies upon the intellectual assets of the organisation in terms of its staff. It is within this context that Social Networking Sites (SNS) offer an important potential alternative method to manage and share knowledge within educational institutions. The focus of this research therefore explores the role that SNS could play in relation to the development of Higher Education (HE) within developing countries with a focus on the countries of Egypt and Iraq as having one of the highest and lowest rates of internet usage within the Middle East respectively. In order to gain a better understanding of the potential drivers and barriers to the use of SNS as a knowledge sharing (KS) tool within educational institutions, within the developing world, a case study approach has been used. This approach consisted of semi-structured interviews with forty members of staff, both senior managers and academic staff, within Mansoura University's Faculty of Commerce in Egypt and Al-Mustansirya University's Faculty of Economy and Administration in Iraq. The results show there are both areas of agreement and difference in the views of staff within both institutions. In both cases issues of culture appear to affect the participation of female staff and additionally age appears to be a predictor of use. However between the institutions there appears to be wider differences relating to the existence of KS strategies, the extent to which staff understand the nature of SNS and technology in general and the extent to which Senior Managers and other staff views are shared. Overall the results suggest that Mansoura University in Egypt is far more prepared for the use of SNS as a KS tool and some usage appears to already be occurring. Within Al-Mustansirya University, Iraq however the usage of SNS as an organisational tool appears to be unlikely to occur within considerable promotion and changes to strategic drivers.
