From Richard's reply and then a little more investigation into this I think that the way I was initializing the model is incorrect. I guess that one cannot use an existing view model and then expect it to work with mapper plugin. So instead you initialize view model with raw JSON data using the ko.mapping.fromJS:
var helloWorldModel;
$(document).ready(function() {
var defaultData = {
name: 'Default Name',
message: 'Hello World Default'
};
helloWorldModel = ko.mapping.fromJS(defaultData);
ko.applyBindings(helloWorldModel);
$('#CallServerButton').click(getDataFromServer);
});
function getDataFromServer() {
$.getJSON("HelloSpring/SayJsonHello/chicken.json", function(data) {
mapServerData(data);
});
}
function mapServerData(serverData) {
alert(JSON.stringify(serverData));
ko.mapping.fromJS(serverData, helloWorldModel);
}
This code works and provides the expected behavior