Bob Frankston

Robert M. Frankston (born June 14, 1949) is an American software engineer and businessman who co-created, with Dan Bricklin, the company Software Arts and the spreadsheet program VisiCalc, the latter being vended by VisiCorp.^[1]

Bob Frankston
Born	(1949-06-14) June 14, 1949 (age 76) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SB, MEng)
Known for	Co-creator of VisiCalc

Early life and education

Frankston was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 1966. He earned a S.B. degree in computer science and mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by a Master of Engineering degree in computer science, also from MIT.^[2][3]

Career

After his work with Dan Bricklin, Frankston later worked for Lotus Development Corporation and Microsoft.^[4]

Frankston became an advocate for reducing the role of telecommunications companies in the evolution of the Internet, particularly with respect to broadband and mobile communications.^[5][6] He invented the term "Regulatorium" to describe what he considers collusion between telecommunication companies and their regulators that prevents change.^[7][8]

Awards and recognition

• Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (1994) "for the invention of VisiCalc, a new metaphor for data manipulation that galvanized the personal computing industry".
• MIT William L. Stewart Award for co-founding the M.I.T. Student Information Processing Board (SIPB).
• The Association for Computing Machinery Software System Award (1985).
• The MIT LCS Industrial Achievement Award.
• The Washington Award (2001) from the Western Society of Engineers (with Dan Bricklin).
• In 2004, he was made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for advancing the utility of personal computers by developing the VisiCalc electronic spreadsheet".^[9]