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# Bob Metcalfe

"Father of Ethernet, founder of 3Com, in-demand author, pundit, and conference host, Bob Metcalfe is overcommitted and then some. But never too busy to make sure the good guys - himself included - win."

"Claim to fame: Inventor of Ethernet in 1973, a consulting associate professor at Stanford University, founder of 3Com Computer Corp. in 1979, creator of Metcalfe's Law, CEO of IDG's InfoWorld Publishing Co. (a sister company to Computerworld) from 1992 to 1995, and an InfoWorld columnist and industry pundit. Metcalfe is also the author of three books and the winner of numerous awards, among them the Grace Murray Hopper Award and the IEEE's Alexander Graham Bell Medal."

### Metcalfe's Law

Metcalfe's law states that the value of a network equals approximately the square of the number of users of the system (n2). Since a user cannot connect to itself, the actual calculation is the number of diagonals and sides in an n-gon:

$\frac{n(n-1)}{2}.$

First formulated by Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, Metcalfe's law explains many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web.

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