Clever Geek Handbook
12 October 2025

The Information Paradox

Recommendation

John Thorp’s book recalls Mark Twain’s definition of a classic as "a book you want to have read but don’t want to read." If you’re an executive with control over your company’s information technology purse stings, you probably don’t want to read a book this detailed in the intricacies of IT, which is exactly the reason that you should. Thorp’s initial premise is that many IT investments never pan out in part because the people that are signing off on them have absolutely no idea what to expect. This book will give you a clue, but don’t expect to enjoy it. It’s dense with IT terminology, change and program management strategies and valuation techniques. BooksInShort recommends this book to all of you professionals who know that you need a better understanding of information technology, even if you won’t admit it. Don’t put off reading this book, no matter how much you’d like to.

Take-Aways

  • The executives who make most information technology (IT) investments have no idea of the expected return and no means of measuring it.
  • A few organizations succeed at implementing IT changes, but most have only sporadic success with vital information initiatives.
  • Any IT investment should be part of a portfolio of change initiatives.
  • Most failed IT investments were quick fixes, not part of an overall strategy.
  • Only make IT changes after considering cross-functional linkages between all aspects of your organization.
  • Use a benefits realization approach to determine what your organization needs and how an IT initiative can help.
  • Have a senior management executive sponsor this initiative.
  • For success, determine who will take ownership and accountability.
  • Consider the people factor. Communicate with everyone who will be affected.
  • View the IT initiative as part of an ongoing strategy to position your organization.

Summary

Why Can’t I Get Any Information From My IT Department?

Investment in information technology today far outpaces anything in modern business history, and the transformation of business by information technology is only beginning. But although IT expenditures have grown 20% to 30% per year for the last 20 years, economists remain divided about the degree to which this has enhanced productivity.

“In the business world, a cluster of computer and telecommunications technologies is playing much the same role that the steam engine, railways and new factory modes of production did in the nineteenth century.”

However, the information paradox referred to in the title of this book isn’t the fact that you can never get information from your IT department. Rather, it’s that most investments in information technology are made by executives who don’t have any idea what kind of returns they can expect to receive. This paradox is related to Pareto’s Law, which states that 80% of productivity returns come from 20% of all IT investments. If expenditure on information technology was more accurately aligned with functional need, every organization would get a lot more for its IT dollar. Management’s dilemma is determining how to invest efficiently in IT development. The simple solution: Verify the value of new information technologies prior to buying them.

Silver-Bullet Thinking

Thinking that IT is the answer to all your business problems is silver-bullet thinking that has led to many disappointments in IT investments. Information technology alone cannot deliver consistent results. Customized solutions only work if they meet your organization’s needs, and if people are trained to use them. Investing in IT is not just selecting specific hardware or software. Rather, your organization should invest in the process of change itself.

Management Blind Spots

Once you realize that the real purpose of your IT program is to transform your business, the key factors become clear. The traditional management outlook has four blind spots:

  • Linkage - This means understanding the connection between the IT investment and additional investments and initiatives in other areas of your business, which combine to achieve the desired benefit. IT cannot do it alone. If you understand the linkage with other aspects of your business, you can match expectations with results more realistically. IT must be integrated with your overall business strategy and with other initiatives.
  • Reach - Questions about reach include, ’How deeply will your organization be affected by the change in IT structure?’ and ’How disruptive and challenging will the change be?’ These questions apply to the breadth of change an IT investment requires. Answering them requires a comprehensive view of your organization and how it manages change.
  • The people factor - Your IT initiative will change the work lives of a number of people who must be inspired to change. Many businesses overlook the process of preparing their people for this transformation of their business.
  • Time - Determining realistic timeframes can be difficult. Ask early and often how much time will be needed to accomplish the IT initiative? People need time to make changes; take that into account to avoid unexpected time lags and internal resistance.

The Benefits Realization Approach

Maximize your gain and minimize your risk in an IT investment by using the benefits realization approach. With this, you achieve two interrelated changes: a change in the IT mind-set and a change in management methods. This new mind-set tries to integrate technology into the overall business more effectively and to replace silver-bullet thinking. Management accepts the fact IT cannot succeed alone, no matter how powerful it is. IT must be integrated with your organization’s other goals and strategies. The three fundamentals that define the essence of benefits realization are:

  1. Program management - Shift from an isolated IT project-management approach to business program management. Projects are specific tasks, while programs are groupings of projects designed to achieve a defined benefit. The IT project should become part of a blended investment program that considers other projects as well.
  2. Portfolio management - Focus on disciplined portfolio management and away from rivalry among projects. Portfolios are groups of investment programs managed to achieve specific results and a defined stream of benefits.
  3. Full-cycle governance - Shift from traditional project management time periods to full-cycle governance, which continues over the course of a full cycle of innovation. Your organization should monitor and measure the implementation of programs over an entire innovation cycle, including installation, training and user feedback.
“The commonsense observation, confirmed by experts looking at the Information Paradox, is that buying expensive IT tools will not make you more productive unless you know how to apply them.”

In addition, three other conditions are necessary:

  1. Activist accountability - Identify business sponsors who have a continuous ownership interest in the new program. Ownership of the innovation must cross the firewall that tends to exist between business and IT.
  2. Relevant measurement - When you measure the success of your IT initiative, focus your measurements on key desired results, and link the IT investment to those results.
  3. Proactive change management - Design your management strategy to involve people in the change process and give them an ownership stake. It isn’t enough to install new hardware. You must also ensure that people think and behave differently. Management must convey that people can influence the course of change, in return for their active participation in making the new program a success.

Designing and Managing Programs

Your IT effort is a program, not a project. It’s part of a larger strategy for change that encompasses your entire business. You can use eight practical steps to design and implement a major blended IT program that takes into account all aspects of your organization:

  1. Define benefits and linkages - The more clearly you can identify the effect you desire, in measurable terms, the greater your chance of achieving it. Assess the affect upon other departments and functions in your organization.
  2. Definition of program scale - Go beyond IT and include all activities, all projects and all initiatives necessary to generate the desired benefits. This will help you create a well-rounded program rather than a traditional project.
  3. Map the benefits realization - Chart the chain of people and actions needed to create the desired results. This chain should take into account the business, the technology, the organization, the process and the people (BTOPP). This is your roadmap to the results you want.
  4. Design the program - Select the best path. You will face strategic trade-offs here, so be prepared to make challenging choices.
  5. Define accountabilities - Determine activist accountability. Senior business sponsors must take ownership of the program, and accept clear accountability for delivering benefits. Implement this as a way to achieve success, not as a way to assess blame.
  6. Think people - Putting aside all the technological ramifications, consider how the program will affect your employees. Change management must be part of your plan.
  7. Time accounting - Do not assume benefits will be immediate. This is not a quick fix. Instead, aim for a stream of benefits, occurring over time, as people learn the system.
  8. Prepare for risk - Consider the factors that are not under your control, and realize that some of them will come into play. Monitor them carefully. Make sure the risks are clearly spelled out for everyone.

Three Management Pitfalls

Your management team can run into trouble at three (well, at least three) blind spots. Watch for these road hazards:

  1. The quick-fix solution - Treating your IT selection as a one-time event is a big mistake. The changing business environment will require adjustments as you build your IT infrastructure. Make sure everyone understands that this ongoing process is subject to change.
  2. Isolated selections - IT projects are part of a larger whole. Looking at just the IT solution is short sighted and doomed to shortcomings. Even when you broaden your thinking to conceive of an investment program rather than a project, the tendency is to look at each program in isolation. View IT as part of an integrated whole.
  3. Consider all aspects of value - When assessing the value you expect your IT investment to return, go beyond simple financial measures and account for all prospective values. One value is that your new system better prepares you for future changes.

Relevant Measurement

The benefits realization approach depends on relevant measures of performance. But measuring the value of IT investments is notoriously difficult. Its effects are so pervasive that they influence the productivity of many different aspects of an organization, and therefore, the return on the investment is difficult to track. Existing measurement systems tend to have four blind spots: overload of financial data, imprecise measurements, measurements that don’t assess results, and data that doesn’t demonstrate the benefits of IT.

  1. Financial data overload - Financial systems produce too much information that is difficult to use. It is not presented in a way that suggests a corrective action.
  2. Operational measurements - These produce data on core functions such as manufacturing, but the data is often difficult to use in demonstrating the benefits of a given investment. The benefits realization approach often encounters the same measurement problems that affect quality management.
  3. Project management systems - These measurements of costs and of project inputs and constraints do not assess outcomes and benefits.
  4. Human resources and marketing information systems - Again, the data these generate do not tie into the benefits structure that demonstrates the value of an IT investment.
“The linkage and reach of both program and portfolio management are quite broad, requiring the cooperation of cross-functional management groups. All this leads to one simple conclusion: You need support from the top of your organization.”

The dilemma is that benefits realization and full-cycle governance are essentially cross functional. IT investments are powerful exactly because they cut across every facet of the business, and to that extent they are partially accounted for in every separate measure of corporate performance. No single measure quantifies IT’s contribution. The solution is to design a new measurement system, making sure that the correct measures exist, and that they assess the correct things in the correct way. Such objective measurement systems should direct the organization’s decisions and actions.

Fighting Change

When management implements your new IT program, some resistance is likely, unless you proactively introduce change to your organization. Evaluate the reach of change in your organization. Be aware of how deeply this will affect the company and of how many operations you will have to adjust. Understanding the full implications enables you to then consider its effect on people as well. People issues will not handle themselves. When confronted by change, people often react as they would if grieving: denial, anger, guilt, acceptance and finally, moving forward. It is a mistake to dismiss this reaction. The key is to effectively communicate with those who will be touched by the changes that lie ahead. It may help also to establish a reward system based on achieving steps along the path to change. By taking proper account of the human element necessary to implement change, you improve your chances of realizing an excellent return on your IT investment.

About the Author

John Thorp is vice president of the DMR Consulting Group’s Strategic Consulting Practice. He is a management consultant and frequent speaker with more than 35 years of IT experience. DMR is a leading provider of IT services to businesses and other organizations. Thorp lives in Victoria, B.C., Canada.

Read summary...
The Information Paradox

Book The Information Paradox

Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology

McGraw-Hill,
 


12 October 2025

Web-Based Human Resources

Recommendation

Editor Alfred J. Walker briefly introduces the new Web-based technologies that are enabling human resource (HR) managers to operate more effectively. He then offers a series of 17 articles by different authors covering these new approaches. The topics covered include Web-based employee self-service, delivering employee benefits over the Web, creating an HR service center, outsourcing and using the Web for a variety of services, including recruiting, staffing, compensation planning, employee development and knowledge management. This specialized book will primarily interest HR professionals, top executives and information technology professionals involved in setting up HR information systems. Since HR professionals are attuned to human failings, BooksInShort trusts they will forgive the book’s occasional information overlaps - hard to avoid with a collection of articles by different authors - and frequently return to this solid and specifically useful book.

Take-Aways

  • New browser-based human resource (HR) portal technologies are changing the way HR professionals manage human resources.
  • Web-based HR technologies can handle benefits, compensation, recruitment, staffing, performance management and many other HR functions.
  • These new technologies are linked through an HR data mart and HR applications.
  • Web-based technologies enable you to set up an HR system within weeks or months.
  • The core of the system is a Web-enabled HR portal and self-service network.
  • Self-service applications give managers and employees direct access to the database and other human-resource systems.
  • Operating an effective Web-based HR system requires specialists with technological expertise.
  • HRIS systems and databases coordinate all transactions, keep records and handle applications.
  • You can use a centralized, Web-based service center to handle inquiries and customer transactions, and to resolve routine problems.
  • Develop a master plan to select your Internet and computer-based products.

Summary

HR.com

Today’s new browser-based human resource (HR) portal technology is changing the way HR professionals manage human resources.

Information sharing is only part of this technological revolution. Now you can use point-and-click technology to place text, data and video on the Web, where it can be edited, stored, retrieved and shared. Given this direct access to information, managers and employees can make better, faster decisions about a variety of employment issues, such as hiring, retention, employee development and compensation. Often, employees can access information they need without unnecessary paperwork and without additional help from the HR department.

“HR plans and programs need to be streamlined, tailored and packaged to meet the specific needs of each employee, similar in concept to the customer-driven model that businesses have adopted.”

Depending on your needs, you can set up this system as an Intranet within your company, as an extranet with other companies or on the Internet, permitting even broader access. You can use passwords, encryption and firewalls to limit access to designated users.

These new HR technologies consist of a number of components linked through an HR data mart and HR applications. HR functions that can be linked include an HR service center, HR store, employee and manager self-service, distance learning programs, links with vendors and suppliers, access to internal and external data sources, a knowledge-management system and a Web-based personal portal that can be customized for different employees and managers.

“Properly instituted, knowledge management allows practitioners to find the best research materials, supporting documents, work products and historical data available, not just within the organization, but in the world beyond as well.” [Jack Borbely and Stephen J. Gould]

Today, new Web-based technologies make setting up HR systems fast - a matter of weeks or months, not years. Web and HR portal technology is far more advanced, and the Web has been effectively integrated into a variety of HR applications, such as self-service systems and service centers. Moreover, the Web is a good place to advertise jobs, collect resumes and facilitate transactions involving employees and managers.

The HR Portal

As HR becomes more complex, with multiple benefit plans, salary programs and career opportunities, HR professionals face an overwhelming amount of information. With the Web, employees can often obtain and process some of the information they need on their own. The Web can also help provide individualized HR plans and programs.

“The concept of HR self-service has become the goal of most Web-enabled HR systems.”

Thus, in planning and setting up your company’s HR department, work toward a customer-driven model that responds to individual interests and needs. If you use a self-service system, employees can access services more quickly for themselves across a broad range of plans and programs. These can include health and welfare plans, pension and investment plans, compensation plans, performance appraisals, training and education, employee communication, employee and management development, labor relations, safety and environmental health planning, and more. Virtually everything you do in HR now can be offered more effectively through these Web technologies.

“The reason Web and HR portal technology is seeing a dramatic advance is not because of the technology itself, but because the Web has been effectively integrated with self-service, HR service centers and other Web applications.”

The core of the system is a Web-enabled HR portal and self-service network, which gives personnel access to the HR information database and other systems. Within this system, the new roles for the HR staff include:

  • Strategic partnering with others in the organization from top managers to local divisions.
  • Staffing centers of expertise, either centrally or locally within the organization.
  • Administering service centers where HR is centralized.
“At the center of the interaction with technology are the Web-enabled HR portal and self-service network, which provide access to the Human Resources information database system and to other major internal and external systems.”

Besides the usual HR staffers, you’ll also need HR specialists who can perform a number of technological roles. These include:

  • A knowledge-based specialist to build and maintain policies, practices and procedures.
  • An overall HR information manager to handle access, use and data privacy.
  • Service center technologists to supply data to the shared services units.
  • Enterprise data mining and data mart personnel to create and manage HR information.

The Web Toolbox

Whatever kind of human resources technology you are using, keep several objectives in mind:

  • Pursue strategic alignment to support the goals of your company.
  • Gain business intelligence that lets you give users relevant information.
  • Seek efficiency and effectiveness so HR employees provide more service for less cost.
“The HRIS System is the primary transaction processor, editor, record-keeper and functional applications system which lies at the heart of all computerized HR work. It maintains employee, organizational and HR plan data sufficient to support most, if not all, of the HR functions, depending on the modules installed.”

To these ends, streamline the work people are doing before you put the technology in place. To do so, categorize HR work into a set of processes to be reviewed by reengineering teams, customers and users. Then, divide them further into sub-processes. Finally, recombine these to create a new set of processes outlining how HR staffers should work in the future.

“HR self-service involves the use of interactive technology by employees and managers to obtain information, conduct transactions and essentially ’shortcut’ processes that previously required multiple steps, paperwork, the involvement of HR staffers and all the delays such processes are heir to.” [Robert Zampetti and Lynn Adamson]

Technologies you can use in setting up an HR portal and self-service include:

  • Workflow - This lets users access employee records or enter data on their own computer terminals and then pass it on to the next appropriate person for review or action. It’s like e-mail with a database and built-in intelligence.
  • Manager self-service - This lets line managers view and change employee records, access policies and procedures, and gain personnel information. They can rate employees, create budgets or enroll employees in training courses.
  • Employee self-service - This lets employees conduct such self-managed activities as changing their benefits program, choosing training programs, examining job postings and engaging in retirement planning.
  • Interactive voice response (IVR) - This enables managers or employees to make many changes to benefits, payroll, job postings or other information using the push-buttons on a telephone, which is a simpler, more limited technology, but less expensive.
  • HR service centers - You can use this centralized set-up to handle inquiries and customer transactions, and to resolve routine problems. The operator can easily access a caller’s records using computer telephone interface (CTI) technology and can use scripted questions to respond quickly on the phone, by fax or by e-mail.
  • HRIS systems and databases - This is the core technology that coordinates all transactions, keeps records and handles applications. It holds all the employee, organizational and HR plan data necessary for all HR functions.
  • HR stand-alone (bolt-on applications) - Select the add-on programs that are most suitable for your HR set-up including, applicant tracking, success planning, 360 degree assessments and appraisal systems.
  • Data marts, warehouses, and OLAP - This refers to information from a single source (mart) or collections of data from mixed sources, such as a mix of financial data and information about production, suppliers and employees. The Online Analytical Process (OLAP) programs are used to bring data to the end users.
“Today, virtually every manager in an organization can access Intranet Web sites capable of providing both the information and transactional or process capabilities to manage the full range of HR programs.” [Lynn Adamson and Robert Zampetti]

Develop a master plan to help you chose among the thousands of Internet and computer-based products, and to create connectivity among those you choose. This way you will avoid having duplicate databases, and overlapping functions and service offerings. Your goal is to establish a comprehensive HR technology strategy.

“Developing metrics for the entire Web site and for specific applications is an important part of the planning process. Web site metrics connect planning and performance.” [Joanne Dietch]

As part of this goal, set up Web-based self-service applications for both managers and employees. Self-service applications for employees can include HR communications, benefits information, personnel data updates and job postings. The managers’ self-service can include data on personnel changes, salary actions and job requisitions. These applications provide everyone with information and a transactional platform for inputting data or making choices about possible options for action.

“Your organization’s employment Web site can uniformly describe what you need, and can collect and process applications from thousands of applicants at once.” [David Cohen]

With this approach, you can improve the delivery of HR services, speed up workflow, reduce administrative costs and increase managers’ access to important data. Managers can also use Web services for improved performance management, recruitment and staffing, time and attendance records, and training and development programs.

Using HR Technologies for Other Applications

You also can use these HR technologies more specifically for Web-delivered or Web-based employee benefits, recruiting and staffing, performance management, compensation planning, technology and employee development, and knowledge management. Focus on using the Web to facilitate providing information and to enable people to communicate across organizational boundaries. Approach each function in a targeted, specific way:

  • Employee benefits - Pay attention to planning, metrics, information presentation, knowledge creation, content management, access issues and technology, and empowerment implications. Plan the benefits you want to offer employees and determine how to design your site to offer these alternatives. Develop a metrics system to connect planning with performance, such as measuring how many users have enrolled each new plan.
  • Recruiting and staffing - Analyze your workforce and think about what talent your company needs. Consider how to find and select the right people, as well as how to hire, deploy and retain people. The Web can help you advertise a position and make it easy for people to apply. You can have applicants answer preliminary questions, schedule tests and even carry out online skills assessments.
  • Performance management - Use the Web for online performance appraisal forms, for getting employee feedback, for self-paced learning programs and for individual scorecards.
  • Compensation plans - Provide information about all the components of both fixed and variable compensation plans. You can use a Web-based program for planning and budgeting, much as you would use a spreadsheet on your computer. By feeding in different numbers, you can experiment with different possible outcomes - and you can allow employees to access these programs to make their own choices among selected options.
  • Knowledge management - Capture, publish, personalize and distribute information to your employees and managers, whether you want to facilitate individual learning, teamwork, measurements, assessments or other activities.
  • Employee development - You can provide classroom training, coaching and mentoring, on-the-job training, communities of practice and organization-wide learning communities.

Once you recognize these possibilities, you can create a business case for setting up a Web-based HR initiative and design a framework for transforming your HR function to use the Web. Then, determine your strategy and the Web architecture you will use, so you can select workflow software for your system. Decide if you want to create your own HR service center and if so, take steps to set up the necessary technologies and hire and train the staff. You can also outsource many of your HR functions to an Applications Service Provider (ASP) or Managed Solutions Provider. That way, you can internalize various functions when you are ready, and your ASP can help you in plan what to do in-house and what to outsource.

About the Author

Alfred J. Walker  is a senior fellow at Towers Perrin, one of the world’s largest human resources consulting firms. Walker is the global thought leader and leading technologist within the human resource administration group in the organization’s Technology Solutions practice. He specializes in the application of technology to HR and management functions. He has written more than 30 articles on HR-related topics and serves on the editorial board of several leading HR journals.

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Web-Based Human Resources

Book Web-Based Human Resources

The Technologies and Trends That Are Transforming HR

McGraw-Hill,
 


12 October 2025

The Second Creation

Recommendation

Science is breeding new technologies at an unprecedented rate, and with the birth of each advancement comes a new generation of ethical concerns. Few developments have rattled the world’s moral cage more than cloning, and it behooves any professional to have a working knowledge of the foundations of the current debates surrounding the genetic sciences. Of course, understanding how Dolly the Lamb was cloned from an adult sheep is probably beyond the grasp of most readers. But authors Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell (the two leaders of the cloning team) and Colin Tudge (an experienced science writer) examine every inch of scientific ground the project covered. While many details are presented densely, this clearly written, first-person account of a momentous, history-making event is fascinating, particularly for readers of a scientific bent. BooksInShort recommends this book to any and all readers as a basic education in a field that has the potential to impact all of our businesses and our lives. Hello, Dolly.

Take-Aways

  • In 1996, the birth of a lamb made history, as Dolly became the first mammal cloned from a cultured adult cell.
  • Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell led the team of scientists who cloned Dolly.
  • This breakthrough revolutionized genetic engineering, genomics and cloning.
  • It brought science closer to the possibility of human cloning.
  • Wilmut and Campbell oppose human cloning.
  • Cloning is a powerful scientific tool for studying the interactions of genes and their surroundings, and for understanding the development of disease.
  • Genetic engineering can improve medicine, agriculture and conservation.
  • The Human Genome Project, a cooperative worldwide scientific program, is identifying all the genes in a human being.
  • Genomics is the mapping of an organism’s genes in the effort to understand the genes’ structures and functions.
  • Genomics will unleash the full power of genetic engineering.

Summary

What Hath Science Wrought?

A team of scientists led by Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell made history at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1996 when they cloned Dolly, a lamb, from the cell of an adult sheep. This procedure marked the first time a whole mammal was cloned using a single cultured adult body cell. This breakthrough revolutionized three technologies - genetic engineering, genomics and cloning - and brought science even closer to the possibility of human cloning.

“We should not see cloning as an isolated technology, single-mindedly directed at replication of livestock or of people.” [Ian Wilmut]

But cloning’s pioneer scientists aren’t necessarily looking forward to human cloning. In fact, Wilmut and Campbell regret that human cloning, which they find distasteful, has taken hold of people’s imaginations. To them, cloning has a different potential strength: as a powerful scientific model for studying the interactions of genes and their surroundings, and an extraordinary tool for understanding development and disease. Such scientific insights will ultimately move science into the age of biological control.

“At Roslin the cloning of sheep by nuclear transfer has become routine - but it remains a routine of huge and irreducible complexity.” [Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell]

Already, researchers have incorporated into sheep the gene for human factor IX, a blood-clotting protein used to treat hemophilia. Scientists hope that, some day, mammary cell cultures may be valuable donor material. They theorize that genetically modified animal organs might be transplanted into humans, since modifications might prevent rejection by the human immune system. This could alleviate the shortage of transplantable organs.

“In general, biologists now perceive that although the different genes of the genome cooperate with each other - of course they must - they also compete.” [Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell]

Scientists expect genetically engineered sheep to be valuable as models for genetic defects that mimic human disorders and diseases, such as cystic fibrosis. They could also lead to cell-based therapies for such diseases as diabetes, Parkinson’s and muscular dystrophy.

Ethical issues abound as a result of the first mammal cloning, with its challenging future implications. Controversy ensues whenever people focus on taking this technology beyond research use in development and disease, and spotlight the idea of cloning humans.

Achieving the Impossible

Mammals are normally brought into this world when a sperm joins with an egg to form a new embryo. But, in 1996, Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and their colleagues from both the Roslin Institute and PPL, a commercial biotech company, cloned Dolly the sheep from a cell that had been taken from the mammary gland of an old ewe and then grown in culture. That cultured cell was then fused with an egg from yet another ewe to reconstruct an embryo that the scientists transferred into the womb of a surrogate mother, where it developed to become Dolly the lamb. While Dolly wasn’t the first mammal ever cloned, she was the first to be cloned from an adult body cell.

“Human cloning is very far from Keith Campbell’s and my own thoughts and ambitions, and we would rather that no one ever attempted it.” [Ian Wilmut]

The Roslin researchers announced Dolly’s existence in February 1997, in a letter published in the scientific journal, Nature. Most scientists were shocked - up until this announcement, they didn’t believe that cloning in this manner, and from this kind of cell, was possible.

The long-term goals of the Roslin team and PPL focus on genetic engineering, which is the genetic transformation of animals - and of certain isolated animal and human tissues and cells - for a number of purposes in medicine, agriculture, conservation and pure science. They stress that the world shouldn’t view cloning as an isolated technology directed merely at replicating livestock or people.

Genetic Achievements

Scientists began developing genetic engineering in the early 1970s. Genetic engineers transfer genes from one organism to another. In a development that is considered truly miraculous, these transferred genes can function perfectly in the new organism. This genetically engineered organism is said to be "transformed" or "transgenic." The transferred gene is called a transgene. Genetic engineers can cross the boundaries that define species. They can take genes from any organism and put them into any other, not just ones of matching species. For example, fungal genes can be placed into plants, mouse genes into bacteria, even human genes into other animals. This engineering isn’t done for ghoulish reasons. Typically it’s done to improve agriculture and livestock, or treat disease.

“Until we started cloning sheep at Roslin, it simply was not possible to re-create whole animals from cultured cells.” [Ian Wilmut]

Since its inception, genetic engineering has been severely limited by the fact that most genes in most organisms remain unidentified. Human beings, for example, have about 80,000 functional genes, but scientists know only a few thousand of them, in terms of what they look like and what they do. This has limited genetic engineers. While they have been developing the technology to transfer genes from one organism to another, they haven’t known for the most part, which genes to transfer.

“Of the creatures studied, frogs have the laziest genes. They do not become active until the embryo contains 3,000 to 4,000 cells.” [Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell]

Genomics is working on solving that dilemma. The science and technology of genomics has been developed only over the past few decades, and it boils down to this: the attempt to map all the genes in an organism and to understand their individual structures and functions. The genes of some simple organisms, including yeasts and the roundworm Caenorhabditis, have already been mapped completely. Biologists worldwide are now cooperating to identify all human genes in a program called the Human Genomic Project. Scientists at Roslin are working with other laboratories to identify and map all the genes in each common livestock species: poultry, sheep, cattle and pigs. Genomics will lead to knowledge that will allow the power of genetic engineering to be realized fully.

“Sheep have proved excellent subjects for cloning, but there is no point in cloning them just for the sake of it.” [Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell]

Polly, another lamb, was born in 1997, the year after Dolly. Polly was the first animal to be both cloned and genetically transformed. Until Polly, this transformation was possible only in plants, but not animals. Scientists had found it relatively easy to transform bacteria genetically by growing it in a dish, adding DNA (the material in genes) and then selecting the individual bacteria that have taken up the added genes most satisfactorily. They use the same technique with plants. Scientists grow plant tissue in a dish using a process known as culturing. When they add new DNA, a whole new plant is regenerated from the previously selected cells, the ones that took up the added gene most effectively.

“The cell cycle is the complete agenda of the cell: cell division, duplication of DNA and then (in most cases) more cell division. The science and technology of cloning needed input from a different branch of biology - the study of cell cycles. Not every cloning biologist realized that this was so, and even for those who did, the necessary information simply did not exist.” [Colin Tudge]

Polly was the first animal created from cells grown in a dish, as if they were bacteria or cultured plant cells. This process is far superior to initial animal genetic engineering, which dates to the 1980s. For the first time, this process allows genetic engineers not only to add genes, but also to subtract them, alter them or add artificial genes. The Roslin sheep-cloning research led scientists to this superior form of genetic engineering, as well as to the breakthrough of cloning from cultured cells.

“Actors are warned not to work with children and animals; reproductive biologists who want an easy life might be advised in similar vein to stay well clear of sheep.” [Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell]

The three technologies together - genetic engineering, genomics and cloning from cultured cells - are a powerful combination. Through genetic engineering, scientists can transfer genes from organism to organism, create new genes and, in principle, build new organisms. Genomics provides the necessary information: knowledge of which genes to transfer, where to find them and what each gene does. Cloning from cultured cells makes it possible, again in principle, to apply the power of genetic engineering and genomics to animals.

“Despite the folklore, sheep are not relaxing animals. They are notoriously prone to obstetric problems, which is why shepherds traditionally spend their nights out in the fields.” [Keith Campbell]

As powerful as they are, these technologies are just the beginning. Beyond technology is pure science. Technology is about changing things, providing machines and medicines, and altering your surroundings to make life more comfortable and to create wealth. But, science is about understanding how the universe works and understanding all the life forms in it. The pursuit of technology and the pursuit of science are two different endeavors. Cloning is a powerful technology, but it also creates an opportunity for scientific insight and increased knowledge. Science and technology work together. Yet, ideas don’t flow just one way, from science into technology. Ideas run in both directions. Without technology, science would grind to a halt. Science and the craft of cloning depends on technological input - for evidence of that, just look at the complexity of the step-by-step process.

The Science of Cloning

Dolly is not a 100% replica of the old ewe that provided her first cell - Dolly’s "clone mother." Dolly isn’t as similar to her clone mother as two identical twins would be to each other. Dolly, is merely a genomic, or DNA, clone. A huge difference separates the kinds of clones produced by nuclear transfer (such as Dolly) and the kinds of clones produced by embryo splitting, which is the natural occurrence that creates identical twins. Twins have identical DNA and identical cytoplasm, since the cytoplasm of the original embryo cell simply splits after the DNA duplicates. But clones such as Dolly are made by transferring a nucleus from one cell into the cytoplasm of another, an egg cell from a different animal: Dolly and the ewe who provided the original nucleus have identical DNA, but they don’t have identical cytoplasm. That is why Dolly isn’t a "true" clone, merely a "DNA clone."

The ewe that supplied the nucleus for Dolly was a Finn-Dorset sheep, and the ewe who supplied the cytoplasm was a Scottish Blackface, a very different breed. But, Dolly is a Finn-Dorset. Even though this clearly shows that the nuclear DNA prevails, but the DNA doesn’t operate in isolation. It is in constant dialogue with its cytoplasmic environment - the cytoplasm makes a difference. Although Dolly’s body cells are descended from a cell with mainly Scottish Blackface cytoplasm, that cell also contained some Finn-Dorset cytoplasm, which surrounded the donor nucleus. To make true clones by nuclear transfer, scientists would transfer a body cell from the ewe into egg cytoplasm from the very same ewe. That way, the offspring would contain a clone both of the clone mother’s DNA and of her cytoplasm.

Creating Dolly was not a one-shot deal. First, 277 embryos were constructed from the Finn-Dorset ewe’s mammary cells. All of these embryos were transferred into the oviducts of temporary recipients, and 247 were then recovered. Only 29 successfully developed into blastocysts. These were transferred into 13 ewes. Only one became pregnant, the Scottish Blackface that gave birth to Dolly, a Finn-Dorset lamb. Only one out of 277 embryos stayed the whole course and became a live lamb. If none of the 277 had succeeded, scientists may not have tried again. Getting the funding to continue would certainly have been quite difficult. The figures can be looked at many ways. One in 277 this time, but maybe next time more... or none. Only 13 ewes became pregnant during the process, and Dolly came from this 13. One out of 13 is actually a very good rate.

As with all powerful technologies, contradictions abound. Cloning has incredible potential for good, especially when combined with genetic engineering and genomics. But, such power can also be abused, and the most obvious abuse would be human cloning. Even though the pressures for human cloning are quite powerful, and it’s likely that somebody will attempt it, it won’t necessarily become common. Society doesn’t have to adopt technologies that feel uncomfortable. People in many countries have already proven that they can resist such uncomfortable technologies. Various European countries reject nuclear power, the British said no to the high-rise answer to mass housing and many people won’t accept genetically modified crops.

Would people undertake the risks and implications of cloning? No doubt some people would. A philosophy of supporting personal liberty leads those who object to the idea of human cloning to defend the rights of those who would welcome it. But, will it become common, broadly accepted and pervasive? That is not inevitable. The answer will come soon, as human cloning is likely during this decade.

About the Authors

Ian Wilmut  studied embryology at Nottingham University and received his doctorate at Cambridge University. He joined the independent Animal Breeding Research Station, which became the Roslin Institute, where he led the team that cloned Dolly. Keith Campbell  studied microbiology at Queen Elizabeth College, London, obtained a D.Phil. from the University of Sussex and is now a cell biologist and embryologist at the University of Nottingham. He joined the Roslin Institute in 1991 to work on the project that resulted in Dolly. Writer and broadcaster Colin Tudge  majored in zoology at Cambridge University. He is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy at the London School of Economics. He has written more than a dozen books, including The Variety of Life: A Survey and a Celebration of All the Creatures That Have Ever Lived, published by Oxford University Press.

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