The Web started off behind the idea of the free flow of information as envisioned
by Tim Berners-Lee. He was working at CERN in Europe. CERN had a
somewhat web-like environment in that many people were coming and going and
worked on many different projects.
Tim created a site that described how the Web worked and placed it live on the
first server at info.cern.ch. Europe had very little backing or interest in the Web
back then, so U.S. colleges were the first groups to set up servers. Tim added links
to their server locations from his directory known as the Virtual Library.
Current link popularity measurements usually show college web pages typically
have higher value than most other pages do. This is simply a function of the
following:
• The roots of the WWW started in lab rooms at colleges. It was not until
the mid to late 1990s that the Web became commercialized.
• The web contains self-reinforcing social networks.
• Universities are pushed as sources of authority.
• Universities are heavily funded.
• Universities have quality controls on much of their content.