Robert Metcalfe

Robert Melancton Metcalfe (born April 7 [cite web
url = http://invent.org/Hall_Of_Fame/353.html
title = Robert Metcalfe, Inventor Profile
accessdate = 2007-10-19
date = n.d.
publisher = National Inventors Hall of Fame] , 1946 in Brooklyn, New York) is an electrical engineer from the United States who co-invented Ethernet, founded 3Com and formulated Metcalfe's Law.
As of January 2006, he is a general partner of Polaris Venture Partners.

Infobox Scientist
name = Robert Metcalfe
box_width = 200


image_width =
caption = Robert Metcalfe wearing the United States National Medal of Technology (2003).
birth_date = April 7, 1946.
birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, United States.
death_date =
death_place =
residence = United States
citizenship = United States
field = Computer networking
work_institutions = MIT, Xerox PARC, 3Com.
alma_mater = MIT, Harvard University.
doctoral_advisor =
known_for = Co-invention of Ethernet.
prizes = National Medal of Technology, IEEE Medal of Honor, IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, [http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/2008_fellow_awards.html Computer History Museum Fellow Awards] .
religion =
footnotes =

Biography

In 1964, he graduated from [http://bayshore.k12.ny.us/SeniorHigh.cfm Bay Shore Public High School] . Metcalfe graduated from MIT in 1969 with two S.B. degrees, one in Electrical Engineering and the other in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He then went to Harvard for graduate school, earning his M.S. in 1970.

While pursuing a doctorate in computer science, Metcalfe took a job with MIT's Project MAC after Harvard refused to let him be responsible for connecting the school to the brand-new Arpanet. At MIT's Project MAC, Metcalfe was responsible for building some of the hardware that would link MIT's minicomputers with the Arpanet. Metcalfe was so enamored with Arpanet, he made it the topic of his doctoral dissertation. However, Harvard flunked him. His inspiration for a new dissertation came while working at Xerox PARC where he read a paper about the ALOHA network at the University of Hawaii. He identified and fixed some of the bugs in the AlohaNet model and made his analysis part of a revised thesis, which finally earned him his Harvard PhD in 1973. [cite web
url = http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/metcalfe.html
title = Internet Pioneers - Bob Metcalfe
accessdate = 2007-12-07]

Metcalfe was working at Xerox PARC in 1973 when he co-invented Ethernet, a standard for connecting computers over short distances, with David Boggs. Metcalfe pegs the exact day Ethernet was born: May 22, 1973, the day he circulated a memo titled "Alto Ethernet" which contained a rough schematic of how Ethernet would work. "That is the first time Ethernet appears as a word, as does the idea of using coax as ether, where the participating stations, like in AlohaNet or Arpanet, would inject their packets of data, they'd travel around at megabits per second, there would be collisions, and retransmissions, and back-off," Metcalfe explains. David Boggs offers another date as the genesis of Ethernet: November 11, 1973, the first day the system actually functioned. [cite web
url = http://www.wired.com/wired/archive//6.11/metcalfe_pr.html
title = The Legend of Bob Metcalfe
accessdate = 2007-12-07
date = 1998-11
publisher = Wired]

In 1979, Metcalfe departed PARC and founded 3Com, a manufacturer of computer networking equipment. In 1980 he received the Association for Computing Machinery Grace Murray Hopper Award for his contributions to the development of local networks, specifically Ethernet. In 1990 Metcalfe lost a boardroom skirmish at 3Com in the contest to succeed Bill Krause as CEO. The board of directors chose Eric Benhamou to run the networking company Metcalfe had founded in his Palo Alto apartment in 1979. Metcalfe left 3Com and began a 10 year stint as a publisher and pundit, writing an Internet column for InfoWorld. He became a venture capitalist in 2001 and is now a General Partner at Polaris Venture Partners. He is a director of Pop!Tech, an executive technology conference he cofounded in 1997.

Awards

Metcalfe was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1996 for "exemplary and sustained leadership in the development, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet." [cite web
url = http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/awards/pr/mohpr.html
title = IEEE Medal of Honor Recipients
accessdate = 2006-08-19
date = n.d.
publisher = IEEE]

Metcalfe received the National Medal of Technology from President Bush in a White House ceremony on March 14, 2003, "for leadership in the invention, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet", having been selected for the honor in 2003. [cite web
url = http://www.technology.gov/Medal/p_recipients.htm
title = Recipients of the National Medal of Technology
accessdate = 2006-08-19
date = 2006-07-24
publisher = United States Technology Administration] In May 2007, Metcalfe, along with 17 others, was inducted to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, due to his work with Ethernet technology. [cite web|url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070208/ap_on_sc/inventors_hall_of_fame;_ylt=AqY7yv2x0S_V7Ogo6ngNhy7MWM0F | title=Inventors to be honored on Capitol Hill|accessdate=2007-02-08 (currently inaccessible)]

Incorrect predictions

Outside of his technical achievements, Metcalfe is perhaps best known for his 1995 prediction that the internet would suffer a "catastrophic collapse" the following year; he promised to "eat his words" if it did not.During his [http://iw3c2.cs.ust.hk/WWW6/speakers/metcalfe.html key note speech] at the [http://iw3c2.cs.ust.hk/WWW6 Sixth WWW International Conference] in 1997,he took a printed copy of his column that predicted the collapse, put it in a blender with some liquid and then consumed the pulpy mass. [cite web
url = http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/ils310/msg00259.html
title = Sage who warned of Net's collapse eats his words
accessdate = 2007-01-12
date = 1997-04-11
publisher = Reuters] [cite web
url = http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/1997-04/msg00192.html
title = Eating My Collapse Column
accessdate = 2007-01-12
date = 1997-04-16
publisher = North American Network Operators Group] This was after he tried to eat his words in the form of a very large cake,but the audience strongly protested;the cake was quite good Fact|date=June 2007 and was eaten by some of the audience after the speech.

During an event where he talked about [http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/metcalfe/990412bm.htm predictions] at the [http://www8.org Eighth International World Wide Web Conference] in 1999, a participant asked:"what is the bet?". He stated that there was no bet as he was not ready to eat another column.

Metcalfe is also known for his harsh criticism of open source software, and Linux in particular, predicting that the latter would be obliterated after Microsoft released Windows 2000:

::The Open Source Movement's ideology is utopian balderdash [... that] reminds me of communism. [...] Linux [is like] organic software grown in utopia by spiritualists [...] When they bring organic fruit to market, you pay extra for small apples with open sores – the Open Sores Movement. When [Windows 2000] gets here, goodbye Linux. [cite web
url = http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/99/06/21/990621opmetcalfe.html
title = Linux's '60s technology, open-sores ideology won't beat W2K, but what will?
accessdate = 2007-01-12
date = 1999-06-21
publisher = Infoworld]

Selected publications

* "Packet Communication", MIT Project MAC Technical Report MAC TR-114, December, 1973 (a recast version of Metcalfe's Harvard dissertation)
* "Zen and the Art of Selling", Technology Review, May/June 1992 [cite web
url = http://www.scribd.com/doc/4478347/Zen-and-the-Art-of-Selling
title = Zen and the Art of Selling
accessdate = 2008-08-04
date = 1992-06
publisher = Technology Review]

References

ee also

* Metcalfe's Law

External links

* [http://www.cio.com/WebMaster/metcalfe1.html An interview with Robert Metcalfe]
* [http://www.itworld.com/Net/1748/transcript_bobmetcalfe050311/pfindex.html Interview] ITworld
* [http://acm.org/ubiquity/interviews/r_metcalfe_1.html A more detailed interview]
* [http://www.netevents.tv/docuplayer.asp?docid=23 Video - The History of Ethernet]
* [http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/13630/ Why IT Matters]