Are any of you leveraging the DIY/Makers market for your ID work?

Do you drive inspiration from, collaborate with DIYers, or work on your own projects outside your ID "job" that influences the work you do inside your ID "job"? What about crowd sourcing? I see a lot of small companies doing this for graphic design/brand, what about ID?  Is it practical to crowd source for ID or ID inspiration?

Is it the responsability to of every designer to instill a level of protetcionism to the ID profession - let's face it you went to school, put in the hours, worked (or are working) your way through and up the ranks of you chosen profession, why let some untrained or undertrained hobbyist come and take your work away from you?  Maybe your client is looking to cut costs and this is one area they feel they can reduce costs and still get  aquality product to the market?

One good example I've seen is the Oregon Manifest constructors design challenge.  Where some top notch design firms are working with other top notch independent bike builders to design a better bike for the everyday rider.  Is this a model that is scalable into other product categories:  consumer electronics, household, furniture, commercial equipment. . .?

looking forward to hearing your thoughts.