{"id":3866,"date":"2011-04-18T22:56:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T05:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bspcn.com\/?p=3866"},"modified":"2011-04-18T23:01:11","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T06:01:11","slug":"50-ways-to-crowdsource-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/18\/50-ways-to-crowdsource-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Ways to Crowdsource Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by\u00a0businesspundit<\/a><\/p>\n

Want something done quickly and well?<\/strong> Sic the swarm on it.<\/p>\n

Crowdsourcing, which involves a community of anonymous people completing a given task, has become an attractive labor model. Everyone\u2019s seeking it out, from solopreneurs needing transcriptions to Fortune 500 companies looking for answers to complex scientific problems. Here are 50 ways to crowdsource just about everything you can think of.<\/p>\n

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Image: Wayne Large<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

Accommodation<\/p>\n

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Image: Antony J Shepherd<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> While hotels offer predictable accommodations and quality, sometimes you need something different. Like an entire oceanview flat, or an ultrabudget basement room in the heart of a city\u2019s university area. Sites like AirBnB<\/a> and VRBO<\/a> let you search rooms, apartments and houses listed for (nightly) rent by their owners. When you book through the site, the owner gets everything but the small cut taken by the booking site. Ideally, you get the kind of different vacation or business travel accommodations that you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

Advertising<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> With its network of video producers, copywriters, graphic designers, and other kinds of artists,GeniusRocket<\/a> crowdsources custom advertising for your organization. It takes care of the nitty-gritty aspects of dealing with herds of people while keeping everything proprietary. You provide direction on the end result, they guarantee the rest. They are perhaps the next evolution of the ad agency: the ad curator.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> GiantHydra<\/a> is another ad agency curator that uses the \u201cheads\u201d of its hydra to create customer, crowdsourced ad and marketing solutions. Like GeniusRocket, it vets everyone involved in projects, then fishes together the right team for the campaign. The client company\u2019s Creative Director oversees progress. At the end of each \u201cmass collaboration\u201d project, the team, rather than the winner, is rewarded.<\/p>\n

Zooppa<\/a> is another site that crowdsources the creation of complete ad campaigns. IdeaBounty<\/a> is more of a branding-focused crowdsourcing site.<\/p>\n

Algorithms<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> TunedIT<\/a> specializes in crowdsourcing data mining and data-driven algorithms. They pose both industrial and scientific challenges, with student contests to boot. The best algorithm wins the payout.<\/p>\n

Brainstorming<\/p>\n

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Image: \/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

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5.<\/strong> In his book \u201cThe Smart Swarm,\u201d author Peter Miller relays the fact that the most effective kind of swarm involves smart people who specialize in a variety of tasks. Atizo<\/a>, a crowdsourced brainstorming site, harnesses this idea. From naming a unique company to marketing ideas to product concepts, this Swiss site lets you collect hundreds of ideas from people across disciplines. Its innovative payment system is based on points, which brainstormers can accrue in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> If you want to focus on the kinds of fresh ideas that young people provide, Brainrack<\/a> is an idea and solution site with an army of students brainstorming behind it. Prize money gets divvied up between the best 15 ideas. Kluster<\/a> is another brainstorming site to check out.<\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> There\u2019s also a DIY option in this space. If you want ideas for new products or services, or even how you conduct business, take an example from Dell. The computer giant\u2019s IdeaStorm website lets consumers submit their ideas for new Dell products and services, as well as anything else that strikes users\u2019 fancies. Dell doesn\u2019t define the topics, leaving its users creative space. Of the 15,000 or so ideas it has received to date, the company has used more than 400. If you\u2019re a smaller operation, you can do something similar through a Twitter list or a Facebook group (or your fan page) devoted to the topic.<\/p>\n

Broadway Plays<\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> Ken Davenport is producing the musical Godspell<\/em> this year exclusively with crowdsourced funding. One share of the musical costs $100, and investors have to buy a minimum of ten shares. This entry ticket pales in comparison to the usual Broadway investor minimum of $25,000<\/a>. Godspell<\/em> needs a total budget of $5 million, relatively meager compared to other plays. Davenport, who had to pass a finance exam in order to sell the shares of his play in the first place, runs a site called The People of Godspell<\/a> to continue the effort.<\/p>\n

Business Innovation<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> Innovation Exchange<\/a>, like many crowdsourcers, runs contests that award winners with a cash prize. They focus on the business side of innovation, such as products, services, and processes. Companies submit problems to the site, then facilitators pull together teams from diverse backgrounds to tackle them. Challenges range from marketing ideas and ad campaigns to better packaging and transport. (Though the site doesn\u2019t advertise its challenges as being technical, some of the challenges do require a technical background.)<\/p>\n

Cancer Treatment<\/p>\n

10.<\/strong> Cancer Commons<\/a>\u2019 goal is to provide patients with the best cancer treatment possible through crowdsourced information. Doctors, scientists and patients contribute to the effort by sharing treatment results (based on the tumor\u2019s genomic subtype) and using that knowledge to figure out how to best treat the next person. The website also aims to outsmart the shortfalls of Big Pharma\u2019s randomized clinical trials by gathering volumes of specific information.<\/p>\n

Collectibles<\/p>\n

11.<\/strong> These guys have quite the niche. Colnect<\/a> is a crowdsourced collectibles catalogue on which collectors display hundreds of thousands of stamps, coasters, phone cards, and other things they\u2019d gathered. Call it the crowdsourced anti-print catalogue. Users have both wish lists and swap lists, so people in this little industry can fine-tune their collections.<\/p>\n

Data Entry and Digitizing<\/p>\n

12.<\/strong> Microtask<\/a> crowdsources your data entry and digitizing of handwritten forms to a mixture of people and machines. Instead of being able to select their assignments, human Microtaskers work through a queue of seconds-long tasks for as long as they\u2019re available to do them. This is what the New York Times calls<\/a> an \u201conline assembly line.\u201d Companies use these information factory workers full-time; Microtask\u2019s software facilitates the process and guarantees results.<\/p>\n

Donations<\/p>\n

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Image: eperales<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

13.<\/strong> \u201cIf you don\u2019t give back nobody will like you\u201d is Crowdrise<\/a>\u2019s motto. While certain politicians and beloved-by-investor corporations continually prove this statement wrong, there\u2019s something to it, and Crowdrise knows that. Basically, you create a profile, put up your cause (or join someone else\u2019s), message via existing social media sources, and network. Eventually, unless everyone still hates you, you\u2019ll get the money you need.<\/p>\n

Finding a Mortgage<\/p>\n

14.<\/strong> You know those automated mortgage comparison sites? SmartHippo<\/a> isn\u2019t too different, except that it\u2019s powered by a human community, which gives you a more personal touch\u2014and potentially more accurate information\u2014during your mortgage hunt.<\/p>\n

Forecasting and Data Prediction<\/p>\n

15.<\/strong> If you have reams of data and want trained eyes to tell you more about it, hit up the statistical analysis crowdsourcer Kaggle<\/a>. There, teams of data scientists can predict everything from the speed of freeway traffic at a certain time of day to the ratio of people who will default on their bank loans. The team with the best data prediction model wins your prize.<\/p>\n

Graphic Design<\/p>\n

16.<\/strong> Your website design, logos, business cards, pamphlets, and more can all be crowdsourced now. 99Designs<\/a> is a contest site where you submit your concept and let a pool of more than 100,000 designers compete for your prize. At the end, you get the design and the copyright.ReDesignMe<\/a> is another website to check out in this space.<\/p>\n

CrowdSpring<\/a> is a similar website that specializes in small business graphic design. It also offers a host of writing services, from opinion articles to company naming. It also operates on a prize-based model. Squadhelp<\/a> is another site that crowdsources web design and marketing, also with a focus on small businesses.<\/p>\n

17.<\/strong> Minted<\/a> is more of a niche crowdsourcer. It only crowdsources paper designs, especially cards, announcements, wedding invites, and other kinds of stationary. Their open design competitions are, unlike many other crowdsourcing sites, democratic: Users vote the best designs to the top.<\/p>\n

Ideas<\/p>\n

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Image: kinmortal<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

18.<\/strong> Tapping your Twitter followers will help you gain real-time input on your products, services, and anything else you need to know. Depending on how much feedback you want, and how detailed you want it to be, you may want to offer an incentive such as a prize. You can also join or create Twitter lists for ongoing collaboration and discussion. Using Twitter doesn\u2019t require an intermediary, it\u2019s fast, and it harnesses people you\u2019re already familiar with.<\/p>\n

19.<\/strong> Facebook is another way of doing just that. Through a private group or by using your fan page, you can collect rapid-fire feedback for your company. As with Twitter, offering a prize will often get you more responses. You can also use the site for ongoing collaboration.<\/p>\n

Innovation (B2B)<\/p>\n

20.<\/strong> Some big corporations have set up proprietary networks to crowdsource their innovation. For example, P&G Connect + Develop, Procter & Gamble\u2019s invite-only open innovation website, lets companies work with the consumer products giant on its innovation. Only select companies can participate, and ideas aren\u2019t visible to everyone. While P&G has the heft and leverage to pull off this kind of proprietary network, if you\u2019re a small business owner, you can also crowdsource innovation through private groups on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Investing<\/p>\n

21.<\/strong> EquitySplash<\/a> says it\u2019s \u201ccrowdsourcing Wall Street\u201d by letting users invest in a fund (their ownership is proportional to their investment), then having them buy and trade individual picks via a proprietary platform. The outcome of each trade gets spread around the fund. It sounds fun, unless you\u2019re the one making all the bad trades.<\/p>\n

22.<\/strong> Through StockTwits<\/a>, you can network with a huge community of traders around the world, riding their coattails, adding to the info pool, or being a revered lead-dog trader yourself. It doesn\u2019t just run through Twitter, either\u2014you can get tools, widgets, data feeds, and more off their website.<\/p>\n

Lawn Mowing<\/p>\n

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Image: Giovanni Guisi<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

23.<\/strong> Who said you couldn\u2019t crowdsource cutting grass? Put in an order on Lawn Mowing Online<\/a>, and someone from your area will come over and cut your grass the next day, for $19 and up. Anyone with a lawnmower, digital camera and computer can compete for a gig on this site. As a result, moonlighters and professionals are available at a moment\u2019s notice, all from one central website.<\/p>\n

Loans<\/p>\n

24.<\/strong> If the bank won\u2019t lend you money, or if you\u2019re looking to make a better interest rate than the measly one banks are currently offer, peer-to-peer lenders like Prosper<\/a> offer alternatives. Find real people to lend to or from. With more than 1 million users and $227 million lended, Prosper is money.<\/p>\n

Marketing Research<\/p>\n

25.<\/strong> If you need to build and organize a client database, run marketing surveys, or even just sort your existing information, the dutiful Clickworkers<\/a> will hand it over with characteristic German efficiency. They also crowdsource things like writing instruction manuals and glossaries.<\/p>\n

Mobile Testing<\/p>\n

26.<\/strong> If you\u2019re developing anything on a mobile platform, Mob4Hire<\/a> can basically crowdsource the entire development process you, using a swarm of more than 45,000 testers on more than 300 carriers around the world. They give you feedback in every stage of the development cycle, helping you bring your product to market quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n

Music<\/p>\n

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Image: Cerebro Humano<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

27.<\/strong> When millions of users share their playlists, streaming individual songs to other users who want to listen to them real-time, you have one massive crowdsourced music system. That system\u2019s name is Spotify<\/a>, and its technology lets users listen to just about any song they want to\u2014with the exception of a few with licensing issues, like Oasis in the UK\u2014on demand and for free.<\/p>\n

28.<\/strong> If you want to crowdsource your music making, MusikPitch<\/a> lets you tap the swarm for custom songs, compositions, jingles, background music\u2014you name it. is the first site for crowdsourcing custom songs and music compositions. You name the kind of music you want and what you\u2019re willing to pay, then sic the crowd on the task. The winner gets your prize.<\/p>\n

Patent Research<\/p>\n

29.<\/strong> This task can be a horribly time-consuming pain, and Article One Partners<\/a> has the panacea. Their network of more than 1 million patent researchers works on whatever patents or patent issues you need dug up. You can communicate with them to make sure you get the right results. As with many crowdsourcing sites, the best or most extensive research, as determined by you, wins your monetary prize.<\/p>\n

Philanthropy<\/p>\n

30.<\/strong> You have the means. You have an idea of the societal problem you want to address. But you\u2019re not sure how to put your funds or available grants to best use. Enter Philoptima<\/a>, which crowdsources the design and implementation of nonprofit programs for people who have money, but need good solutions. Whoever finds the winning solution gets the cash prize.<\/p>\n

Photography<\/p>\n

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Image: Fabian Reus<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

31.<\/strong> In the traditional stock photo industry, photographers would license their images to established companies, like Getty Images, and receive fees whenever someone bought those photos. As a result, photographers could establish a passive income stream\u2013say, $50 every time someone bought a photo. iStockPhoto<\/a> disrupted this system by letting amateur photographers, generally more concerned with getting their names out than making money, sell their photos for $1 a pop. Legions of amateurs filled the site with cheap and, with numbers on their side, many high-quality photos. This changed the stock photo industry forever. Getty ended up buying it.<\/p>\n

32.<\/strong> Yahoo-owned Flickr<\/a> hosts hundreds of thousands of users who display their photography on the site. Many of these users let you use the photo for free\u2014with credit\u2014via specific Creative Commons licenses. All you have to do is find the picture and credit it appropriately. Many such Flickr users have excellent photographs, meaning that companies seeking to crowdsource that function have good prospects here.<\/p>\n

Preventing Poverty<\/p>\n

33.<\/strong> Yes, even the act of preventing downward mobility has been crowdsourced. The Modest Needs<\/a> foundation has people with serious financial emergencies write about their issues online. Readers then donate whatever amount of money they can afford until the person\u2019s \u201cmodest need\u201d is met. The organization performs due diligence on the people in need, making the website legit and free of scammers.<\/p>\n

Project Management<\/p>\n

34.<\/strong> Smartsheet<\/a> is a project collaboration tool with integrated crowdsourced labor. You use their software to collaborate with your remote team on the project, and plug in labor wherever in the process you need it. The software has HR, IT, marketing, and product management features integrated, kind of a one-stop shop for both collaboration and labor.<\/p>\n

Protests and Causes<\/p>\n

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Image: Dave Watts<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

35.<\/strong> Got cause? CrowdVoice<\/a> can help. By tracking protests around the world, it gives you a central place to find cutting-edge information about your cause and what people are doing about it. CrowdVoice collates news, video, and social media information, so it saves you time and effort in finding the crucial updates you need.<\/p>\n

Publicity<\/p>\n

36.<\/strong> Help a Reporter Out<\/a> (HARO) matches up experts and businesspeople with reporters to create a symbiotic source\/PR relationship. You scan your daily HAROs and see if there\u2019s something you can comment on; reporter publishes or airs a story with your commentary in it. Bingo\u2014instant PR, without the legwork.<\/p>\n

Quality Assurance (QA)<\/p>\n

37.<\/strong> uTest<\/a> offers on-demand, crowdsourced mobile, web, gaming, and desktop application testing. They offer usability, functional and load testing, by nearly 38,000 testers in more than 170 countries. They offer custom quotes in advance, too, so you know exactly what you\u2019re getting into.<\/p>\n

Scientific or Technical Problems<\/p>\n

38.<\/strong> Familiar with RNA sequencing, chemical derivatives, or GUIs? Then you might be the kind of user that InnoCentive<\/a> seeks out to solve companies\u2019 pressing technical problems. Geared at braniacs, and offering handsome prizes for the winning idea, InnoCentive lets companies tap a global community of more than 200,000 users to solve the problems they can\u2019t figure out internally. Those users, in turn, attempt to tackle the problem for a prize. Companies select their winners\u2014and gain a whole bunch of alternative solutions from non-winners in the process.<\/p>\n

39.<\/strong> Like InnoCentive, Idea Connection<\/a> taps the brains of engineers, scientists and other tech-oriented people to solve difficult problems. Unlike InnoCentive, however, Idea Connection is facilitated, and keeps much of its information confidential. Companies come to the service with their challenges, and Idea Connection acts as a middleman, seeking out input from users via collaborative intranets. Companies can customize how much input they get and how much they pay; Idea Connection takes care of the rest. With that level of service, one wonder about the size of the cut that Idea Connection takes vis-\u00e0-vis other crowdsourcing helpers.<\/p>\n

40.<\/strong> There are more companies in this space. Consultant Nine Sigma<\/a> also provides a high level of service, helping companies customize the kinds of structures they need to support open innovation, as well as facilitating open innovation processes. Hypios<\/a> is another company that provides a platform to outsource your R&D.<\/p>\n

Tedious Tasks<\/p>\n

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Image: Theodore Lee<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

41.<\/strong> If your business involves QAing software or content, or perhaps transcribing, finding things online, tagging, or any of the other miscellaneous tasks that come up in your business, there are a couple places that can help out.<\/p>\n

42.<\/strong> Mechanical Turk<\/a>, powered by Amazon.com, lets you splice up your task into minute pieces, enabling you to crowdsource those slices of the project to hundreds of people at the same time. As a result, you\u2019ll get your entire project done faster, because loads of Mechanical Turk providers finish their own slices in the time span you allot. You can get a project that would have taken days done in hours or even minutes this way.<\/p>\n

43.<\/strong> CrowdFlower<\/a>, formerly known as Dolores Labs, is a similar service. It harnesses its millions of users to take on parsed sections of bigger projects, many of the same nature as Mechanical Turk\u2019s. Indeed, CrowdFlower sources people through Mechanical Turk (and several other places). They can also help with custom projects for small businesses, as well as enterprise-level crowdsourcing projects.<\/p>\n

Translation<\/p>\n

44.<\/strong> Starting at 5 cents per word, you can have your content translated by a crowd of 1,200 translators around the world on MyGengo<\/a>. The Japanese company offers translation in 11 languages. The site\u2019s simple, intuitive interface and pay model make human translation almost as easy as plugging something into a machine translator\u2014but with more accuracy, of course.<\/p>\n

Transportation<\/p>\n

45.<\/strong> Zipcar<\/a> is pretty well-known as an easy way to rent a car by the hour, but there are other services that make sense. Car2Go<\/a> is Austin\u2019s answer to Zipcar; RelayRides<\/a> takes the community aspect one step further by letting you rent from independent car owners, by the hour or by the day. They\u2019re only in Boston and San Francisco so far, but will hopefully spread to new cities soon.<\/p>\n

Video<\/p>\n

46.<\/strong> Poptent<\/a> crowdsources commercials, virals, how-tos and all of the other video needs today\u2019s companies have. Basically a social network for people who make videos, Poptent gathers assignments by mostly Fortune 500 hundred companies, lists them on its site, and Poptent members create videos with the given content and creative brief. After users finish the assignments, the company picks their favorite and pays.<\/p>\n

47.<\/strong> Tongal<\/a>\u2019s tagline is \u201cwhere the best ideas meet the best filmmakers,\u201d and that pretty much sums up the collaborative videomaking contest website. If you want an ad, you put up your project and prize, and let the masses compete. Users can also be paid based on the number of times people download their videos, so all is not lost, even if a user loses a contest.<\/p>\n

Waste Disposal<\/p>\n

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Image: University of Scranton<\/a>\/Flickr<\/em><\/p>\n

48.<\/strong> If you have something you want to get rid of, chances are someone in TerraCycle<\/a>\u2019s crowd is willing to do it for you. They specialize in both recyclables and \u201cupcyclables,\u201d things that you don\u2019t want, but someone else can use. eCycler<\/a> is another crowdsourcer that focuses solely on recyclables; Freecycle<\/a>, on the other hand, is the ideal place to dispose of and pick up things to upcycle.<\/p>\n

Writing<\/p>\n

49.<\/strong> If you need a press release in an hour, content on the quick, translation, or proofreading\/editing, Serv.io<\/a> has officially parsed the single human being formerly known as the writer into an anonymous online crowd of college students, stay-at-home parents, unemployed people, and anyone else seeking a quick job fix. It\u2019s quick, because Serv.io guarantees a 24-hour turnaround time; the proofreaders and other service providers are sourced through sister siteCloudCrowd.com<\/a>. They attract these users in part through quick assignments and guaranteed next-day pay. Sadly, Serv.io automates the personal communication that generally makes writers more effective to a client, and it doesn\u2019t let you use the same writer twice.<\/p>\n

50.<\/strong> LetterRep.com<\/a> takes an interesting slant on niche writing. For $25, you can get a letter\u2014any letter\u2014written in 24 hours. We\u2019re talking letters of acceptance, resignation, hypothecation, rejection, and anything else you can dream up. In a nod to the former glory days of copyright, LetterRep pays writers again if existing letters get purchased more than once.<\/p>\n

Bonus: That window’s an asshole<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Written by\u00a0businesspundit Want something done quickly and well? Sic the swarm on it. Crowdsourcing, which involves a community of anonymous people completing a given task, has become an attractive labor model. Everyone\u2019s seeking it out, from solopreneurs needing transcriptions to Fortune 500 companies looking for answers to complex scientific problems. Here are 50 ways to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3866"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3866"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3868,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3866\/revisions\/3868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}