Read Nick Wilson's post on Boys Network 2.0 on Communicontent - he thinks SEO is as a legit a profession as the people you know.  

Well…he's got a point. 

If Andy Beal talks about "White Hat" SEO (I listened to his interview with Jennifer Jones at PodTech btw) but if someone else talks about the exact same things - your looked at differently, depending on reputation.

"…It seems if you're well connected, as Andy is, SEO is a great thing, a profession worthy of respect and consideration by the marketing focused digerati. If you happen to do exactly the same thing, as many of my friends do, but you're not well connected, you're a dirty spammer as usual. "

I'll reserve my opinion in this case.

BTW, organizations like SEMPO are important in changing the perception of SEO.