As a networking technology, Ethernet let information roam. If, back then, IBM's model was to confine all authority over, and access to, computerized information within IT priesthood, what Metcalfe others at PARC were doing was laboring to set it free, to democratize access governance. Now crusade is over. Metcalfe his colleagues at PARC won hands down. IBM has, of course, long since capitulated broadened its vision portfolio.
Mainframes know their place and keep it.
Data flows everywhere like water, swift and mostly unimpeded, across fast Ethernet cabling. But Metcalfe never doubted outcome. It couldn't have been stopped. His own contribution to victory was pipe that would carry freed information away from its white-room Alcatraz. This truth dovetails neatly with his work.