Vortex | 2000 The Producers

Technology pundit Bob Metcalfe was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 with bachelors degrees in electrical engineering and in management. In 1970, he received from Harvard University a masters degree in applied mathematics and in 1973 his PhD in computer science. His doctoral dissertation, Packet Communication, was about the early Internet. For the next eight years, Metcalfe worked at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he invented Ethernet, the local computer networking standard that today connects over 100 million computers to the Internet. In 1979, Metcalfe founded 3Com Corporation, the $6 billion computer networking company, where he was at various times chairman, president, CEO, vice president of sales and marketing, and general manager of several divisions. He retired from 3Com in 1990. While at Xerox and 3Com, Metcalfe was for eight years a consulting associate professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. After leaving 3Com, he spent a year as a visiting fellow in the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, England. Metcalfe now serves on the board of trustees of MIT where he was 1997-98 President of the Alumni Association. He is on the visiting committee to the department of electrical engineering and computer science and on the board of MIT's Technolgy Review Magazine. In 1980, Metcalfe received the Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). In 1988, he received the Alexander Graham Bell Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 1993, Metcalfe received the Exploratorium Award for Public Understanding of Science. In 1996, Metcalfe received the IEEE's highest award, the IEEE Medal of Honor. Metcalfe was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997. Metcalfe joined International Data Group in 1992, first as Publisher/CEO of InfoWorld. He is now a director, vice president, and technology pundit -- writing columns, giving speeches, and organizing conferences, mostly about the Internet. He has written his internationally syndicated column in InfoWorld weekly since 1992, and it is now read by over half a million information technology professionals in the United States. After 22 years in Silicon Valley, Metcalfe's office is now in Boston, and he lives with his family on a conservation farm in midcoast Maine. His e-mail address is metcalfe@infoworld.com.

Selected Accomplishments:

Recent Interviews and Clips

60 Minutes interview on Scott McNealy and Sun Microsystems, 1/3/99
Forbes ASAP, "Just a Second...," 11/30/98
PBS Online, "Nerds 2.0.1, A Brief History of the Internet," 11/25/98
Wired Magazine, "The Legend of Bob Metcalfe," Scott Kirsner, 11/98
Improper Bostonian, "Top 40 Internet Influencers," 10/21/98
Internet Week, "Geek of the Week," 6/15/98
Forbes ASAP, "Metcalfe Battles the Telcos," 2/23/98

Professional Memberships

Association for Computing Machinery
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Engineering

Notable Former Roles

Executive Office, President's Advisory Committee on Information Networks
National Research Council's Computer Science and Technology Board

MIT Activities

Endowed the Metcalfe Professorship of Writing in 1986 (today Dean Rosalind Williams is Metcalfe Professor of Writing)
Corporation Member, 1992-present (board of trustees)
Executive Committee, 1994-96
Technology Review Board, 1993-present
President of Alumni Association, 1997-98

Author

"Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks," (with David Boggs) in Communications of the ACM, July, 1976
"Local Networks of Personal Computers," at the Ninth World Computer Congress, Paris, 1983
"Packet Communication," republished 1973 Harvard Ph.D thesis, 1996
"Beyond Calculation," editor with Peter Denning, 1997

Awards and Honors

Academic Credentials

Associate Producer

John Gallant is executive vice president and editorial director of Network World, Inc., where he runs the print, online and events operations for one of the fastest growing media companies in the computer/communications industry. With more than 16 years of experience in the network industry, Gallant sets the strategic direction for Network World, a newsweekly serving 164,000 network IS professionals. Gallant also guides Network World's other editorial ventures including the Signature Series, a bimonthly series of special issues that includes the "Power Issue," the "Buzz Issue" and the "NW 200 issue".

Gallant also determines strategic direction for NWI's professional development program of seminars and conferences, including the popular State of the LAN, State of the WAN and Town Meeting seminars. NWI's seminars and events group provides in-depth technical and industry education to thousands of network professionals each year. In addition, Gallant oversees all content and business development efforts for Network World Fusion, the leading independent Web site for network professionals. Gallant led the editorial design of Network World Fusion in 1995.

Under Gallant's direction, Network World has been a leader in covering the emergence of networking in corporate America and has become the newspaper of record in the network industry. Gallant has positioned Network World as a true service publication for network IS professionals, providing technology and business news along with a wealth of insight, opinion and analysis designed to help readers manage not only their networks and network-based applications, but their growing budgets and staff. The newspaper champions the role of its readers as key drivers in the next wave of business: electronic commerce.

Gallant has dramatically increased Network World's investment in product testing, overseeing the establishment of NW's own test lab as well as the creation of Network World's Test Alliance, a partnership program that brings the expertise of customers, consultants and leading test organizations to the testing of enterprise network products and applications.

Network World's annual "Power Issue" has become the guide to the most influential suppliers and users of network technology. The "Best Issue" is the leading guide to the best products, ideas and practices in networking. The newspaper's annual User Excellence Awards, which honor innovative users of network products and services, are a coveted prize won by such influential companies as American Express, Sears, Bechtel, Texas Instruments, Ford and other leading American corporations.

Network World is routinely honored for its editorial vision, including winning Magazine Week's annual Editorial Excellence Award, and Folio: magazine's Editorial Excellence Awards in 1996 and 1998. Network World has also garnered prestigious Neal awards from the American Business Press Association and has been honored by the Computer Press Association. Gallant has been cited by Marketing Computers magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in computer journalism, and as one of the most visionary editors in chief by Press Access, a public relations trade organization. He has served as a finals judge for the Global Information Infrastructure Awards.

Gallant is a frequent speaker at conferences such as ComNet, Comdex, NetWorld+Interop, Internet World, ATM Year, Vortex and the Internet Commerce Expo. He has hosted many Showdown debates at major trade conferences and has hosted of Network World's annual NetBowl charity event, held in conjunction with NetWorld+Interop. He is on the advisory boards of the NetWorld+Interop, ASP World and ComNet conferences.

Gallant joined International Data Corp., the publisher of Network World, in 1983 as a staff writer for Computerworld. He worked in daily journalism for The Middlesex News and holds an M.A. in journalism from Boston University and a B.A. in economics from Boston College.

Executive Producer