While Europe has less obvious uniforms, educational freedom is still limited. Only England respects and even cultivates idiosyncrasy. The result of this lack of educational freedom is less playfulness and an infrequent convergence of intellectual cultures, which is where computer ideas have traditionally come from. One of MIT's most significant computer forces during the early '60s came from its model railroad club. Another came from the Science Fiction Society.
Multimedia has disparate roots in storytelling, drama, music, and cinematography.
The point is that new ideas do not necessarily live within the borders of existing intellectual domains. In fact, they are most often at the edges and in curious intersections. This means that institutions like universities and PTTs have to embrace some very anti-establishment ideas. Europe's dominantly state-run universities and PTTs just don't do that very well. They run a close first and second for knocking down new ideas.