Gorillas in the mist "And consequently, when there are purely political discussions going on, you often find that Sun doesn't have a spokesperson there because Sun is actually doing the work rather than shaping the politics," [Sun Chief Technology Evangelist Simon] Phipps continued. "It seems that one of our competitors has come up with a cunning ploy to exploit our resistance to doing standards hype and use it to marginalize us." ... "Who is that?" I asked. "Microsoft?" "No," Phipps replied. "Microsoft [is] not playing the game that I just described. On the whole, Microsoft's involvement in XML, at a technical level, tends to be very pure, constructive, and good." ... "So you're talking about IBM?" I asked. "I'm talking about IBM," Phipps replied. "IBM devotes more time to the politics than it does to the technology, in most cases."