And because they view buying plane tickets as a challenge, this mix of frequent flyers, travel agents and amateurs are often well informed about the ins and outs of booking long-haul flights or complicated itineraries.

BBC: Need a flight? Start a contest

That was, in part, because experimenters were often amateurs who were spending private money.

ECONOMIST: Medicine: Shooting down cancer | The

But advocates of citizen newsgathering - who value the capacity of amateurs to get to places professional reporters often can't - say it would be a mistake to hold everyone to the same standards as veterans of the craft.

BBC: News Magazine, Washington DC

Modern armed robbers are amateurs, he says, usually badly equipped and often on drugs.

ECONOMIST: The decline of gun crime: Shot | The

There are plenty of professional and amateurs out there that generate decent and consistent returns trading currencies, and their returns are often times uncorrelated to the stock market.

FORBES: Currencies For The Stock Investor