Participant inequality model by Arts Alliance.

First this: “The Pernicious Effects of Advertising and Marketing Agencies Trying To Deliver User Experience Design.”

But the real action is in the comments. This rebuttal from Rick Webb (of The Barbarian Group) is rich, too.

What’s most interesting to me in this discussion is the extent to which the distinctions this post relies on have broken down. How thoughtfully an organization practices user-experience/interaction design has little to do with whether or not it might also be called an ad agency, design firm, “user-experience design and consulting firm,” brand consultancy or whatever else. The same organizations will be similarly distributed with respect to how effective they are creating visual identity systems, information design, brand strategy, communications planning, writing, etc – not to mention their employees’ personal and professional satisfaction (which is certainly tied closely to ethics).

What we’re left with in 2011 is a broad range of companies that increasingly need to work together to produce the most meaningful stuff – particularly stuff that spans media, purpose or culture. 

What should we be building and why? That’s the fun part.