Understanding the Warning Process Through the Lens of Practice: Emancipation as a Condition of Action–Some Lessons from France - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 229

AE. A sort of appendage, it extends the actor's capacity for physical copresence. The
pseudopod-intermediary 'sees' what the actor cannot see (because he/she cannot be
in copresence with all the entities to be taken into account). The pseudopod-
intermediary is the witness who provides 'fi eld feedback'.
[A weather forecaster:] At a time of crisis, we want all relevant information on the ground.
So the people who provide us with information are the emergency services, CODIS [opera-
tional fi re and rescue centre], COZ [zonal operational centre] […] It is always useful to
know that a weather event has reached a certain level, with certain consequences. Because
after, behind, is it over, is it still continuing?

We can see the importance of these intermediaries, who report conditions in the
fi eld, the 'consequences'. They report an aspect of the phenomena that forecasters
cannot access directly but must take into account. The information comes to them
without them having to look for it. The pseudopod-intermediary can also act
remotely: for example, the countryside warden who brings warnings to isolated
farms where the siren cannot be heard. The pseudopod is thus an 'organ', not only
of perception but also of interaction with the world. It allows the actor to 'delegate'
part of this interaction with the world and is generally invested with a signifi cant
capital of trust. In summary, the main quality of the pseudopod-intermediary is to be
in copresence with realities where, and when, the main actor cannot be. The
pseudopod-intermediary therefore relieves the actor in the course of action by taking
charge of ensuring continuous contact.

12.4.2.2 The Decoder-Intermediary

In addition to the pseudopod function, the decoder-intermediary performs a role of
'translation', helping to interpret the meaning of information for and with the
primary actor.
[A municipality, on the subject of their management of information on the hydro-
meteorological situation:] 'So we, well we have a system that helps us a lot in this sphere,
a system from a company, XX, which is actually involved in all that, in other words it
collects all the information and fi nds information elsewhere than from the emergency ser-
vices or Météo France (…) And these people are a bit what I call our decoder…I compare
it with Canal+ because, ultimately, I couldn't give a toss how the decoding system works.
For me, what matters is that I have my screen…when I want to watch a football match or
something else.'

We can see that XX is certainly a pseudopod (data collection), but above all a
decoder:
And then in practical terms, (…) you're not talking to a machine, you're not talking to a
website, it's just a guy who calls you and says 'right, go on the Internet, we'll talk about this
together, we'll show you the maps, etc.' He's what I would call a technical decoder, but also
a human decoder, because he's someone who has some understanding of our problems. (…)
when they do us an analysis and a report and a summary, there's no point spending three
days talking about it. We talk about it for 5 minutes and he knows very well what we want.
(…) Because the fact is, we're not technicians.