JSON (JavaScript Object Notation, pronounced ; also ) is an open standard file format and data interchange format that uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and arrays (or other serializable values). It is a common data format with diverse uses in electronic data interchange, including that of web applications with servers. JSON is a language-independent data format. It was derived from JavaScript, but many modern programming languages include code to generate and parse JSON-format data. JSON filenames use the extension .json. Douglas Crockford originally specified the JSON format in the early 2000s. He and Chip Morningstar sent the first JSON message in April 2001. Naming and pronunciation The 2017 international standard (ECMA-404 and ISO/IEC 21778:2017) specifies "Pronounced , as in 'Jason and The Argonauts. The first (2013) edition of ECMA-404 did not address the pronunciation. The UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook states that "Douglas Crockford, who named and promoted the JSON format, says it's pronounced like the name Jason. But somehow, 'JAY-sawn' seems to have become more common in the technical community." Crockford said in 2011, "There's a lot of argument about how you pronounce that, but I strictly don't care." Standards After had been available as its "informational" specification since 2006, JSON was first standardized in 2013, as ECMA-404. , published in 2017, is the current version of the Internet Standard STD 90, and it remains consistent with ECMA-404. That same year, JSON was also standardized as ISO/IEC 21778:2017. The ECMA and ISO/IEC standards describe only the allowed syntax, whereas the RFC covers some security and interoperability considerations. History JSON grew out of a need for a stateless, 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. Crockford first specified and popularized the JSON format. The acronym originated at State Software, a company co-founded by Crockford and others in March 2001. 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 Hypertext Transfer Protocol (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 (JavaScript Markup Language) or JSON