Throngs of techies converged on Austin last week for South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), an annual event focused primarily on Internet technologies. While the conference covers a wide array of interests, there was one topic that seemed to keep popping up. During panels, in the halls and at the after parties, crowdsourcing was a hot topic.

What struck me as interesting though, was the highly varied opinions of this new idea. It seems that many people view crowdsourcing as a way to get free labor. “Have your community do the work for you,” said one exec who shall go unnamed (but you know who you are).

What I saw from many angles was a fundamental misunderstanding of the functionality and opportunity of the crowdsourcing movement. The objective, as we’ve executed at SharedReviews, is to create a symbiotic relationship. Leveraging your reviews as a community creates an immense wealth of information and a distinct opportunity from which to profit, but as it is with any healthy community, that profit is shared.

Peter’s post last week February’s top SharedReviewers showed clear examples healthy crowdsourcing. Last month our top reviewers averaged 75 written reviews on top of an average of 58 votes each. For their efforts, they were rewarded with an average of $189.80 — each. It’s because SharedReviews functions on the belief that if a company treats its fans kindly, then those people will remains fans for a long time to come.