The Internet is different from the Web. It is off topic, but if you want to go into that, the Internet as distinct from the Web had an even bigger public kick-start.
Of course the two are interdependent. And both were grown to what we have today by private enterprise not government. Knowing what I know I'll venture to say that the public sector contribution to building either the web or the Internet is just-about microscopic when compared to private investment in both time and money.
Yes, there was a kick-start phase, but it was nothing compared to what came later.
Furthermore, it was done without intent, purpose or even an idea of what it could become. It was simply a communications network for the military at first and for a select few universities later.
In the TED video I linked the presenter is holding a small book that contained every single person using the Internet at the time.
What's interesting is that he registered the third Internet domain, so he was there from the very start.
I was peripherally involved with a couple of interesting private efforts in the early days of the gold rush. One of them was a group led by Phil Anschutz. He owned the right-of-way along major railway routes. They trenches the heck out of those routes to lay in massive amounts of dark fiber. A huge investment in the future that I am sure payed off handsomely.
