Opinions needed! Importance of DIY and amateur culture in design Answered

Hello,
I am writing my dissertation on the role of DIY and Amateur design and how/if it challenges the established professional design process. I would really love to have opinions and ideas from amateur designer's and DIYer's ( not amateur in a derogatory sense, but as the design and making process that exist outside out business and industry, for fun or nessessity) included in my essay, as it seems really contradictory and silly to be championing the role of non-professionals but only asking professionals for their input.
 I would really like ideas on the motivations behind unpaid design and making, examples of sucsesful/unsucsessful amateur design practice, where you feel your output stands in the wider field of design and society, whether its importance is personal to you or has wider implications, is it about individual expression? helping others through design solutions or simply a fun way to pass the time? is it a challenge to the role of the professional designer?
thankyou very much for taking the time to read this, it would be great if you could give me a quick introduction to you and where your coming from along with any opinions, anecdotes etc, just to give it some context, also my tutors don't seem to take well to anonymous quotes. any way, thanks again, hope to hear from you soon!