<P> A restricted profile of JSON, known as I - JSON (short for "Internet JSON"), seeks to overcome some of the interoperability problems with JSON . It is defined in RFC 7493. . </P> <P> JSON grew out of a need for stateful, real - time server - to - browser communication protocol without using browser plugins such as Flash or Java applets, the dominant methods used in the early 2000s . </P> <P> Douglas Crockford first specified and popularized the JSON format . The acronym originated at State Software (originally named Veil Networks, Inc .), a company co-founded by Crockford, Randy Farmer (left to work at 3DO), Greg Macdonald, Chip Morningstar, Robert F. Napiltonia and Dominik Zynis in March 2001 . State Software was funded by Tesla Ventures with $1.8 Million in October 2011, and tried to trademark the word "State". The co-founders agreed to build a system that used standard browser capabilities and provided an abstraction layer for Web developers to create stateful Web applications that had a persistent duplex connection to a Web server by holding two HTTP connections open and recycling them before standard browser time - outs if no further data were exchanged . The co-founders had a round - table discussion and voted whether to call the data format JSML or JSON, as well as under what license type to make it available . Crockford, being inspired by the words of then President Bush, should also be credited with coming up with the "evil - doers" JSON license ("The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil .") in order to open - source the JSON libraries, but force (troll) corporate lawyers, or those who are overly pedantic, to seek to pay for a license from State . Morningstar developed the idea for the State Application Framework at State Software . On the other hand, this clause led to license compatibility problems of the JSON license with other open - source licenses . </P> <P> A precursor to the JSON libraries was used in a children's digital asset trading game project named Cartoon Orbit at Communities.com (the State co-founders had all worked at this company previously) for Cartoon Network, which used a browser side plug - in with a proprietary messaging format to manipulate DHTML elements (this system is also owned by 3DO). Upon discovery of early Ajax capabilities, digiGroups, Noosh, and others used frames to pass information into the user browsers' visual field without refreshing a Web application's visual context, realizing real - time rich Web applications using only the standard HTTP, HTML and JavaScript capabilities of Netscape 4.0. 5 + and IE 5 + . Crockford then found that JavaScript could be used as an object - based messaging format for such a system . The system was sold to Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com and EDS . The JSON.org Web site was launched in 2002 . In December 2005, Yahoo! began offering some of its Web services in JSON . </P>

Who is credited with getting the json movement started