The Alphaville Herald was established by the American philosopher Peter Ludlow, known by his pseudonym Urizenus Sklar, on October 23, 2003. Ludlow, who was formerly the John Evans Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at Northwestern University, is a student of Noam Chomsky and is well known for his work on the interface of linguistics and philosophy, but also for his research on conceptual issues in cyberspace and his more recent writings on hacktivist culture. According to scholars Constantinescu and Decu, The Alphaville Herald was the first "virtual free press," pioneering mass communication in virtual worlds.Constantinescu, Diana and Decu, Andrei, "Social Cooperation within Virtual Worlds: Old Social Phenomena Emerging in New Environments" (October 1, 2008).
