Thanks for the mention. Yes you are correct. Essentially the project was created to distribute SP to the community and have users further interact on Steemit. @steemspeak is a great way to verify users on Steemit and share with an international community. A portion goes to the author featured because I don't believe it's fair if I take votes away from their original post by being featured. Some may not read the VIP post at all and just upvote, so the author is rewarded as should be.