M. Martin
Rose City Digital Principal & Lead Consultant
About RCD
This website is essentially a blog, portfolio piece, and advertisement for a digital technology professional who currently writes about technology as “M. Martin”. Rose City Digital LLC (RCD) was created in 2024, in preparation for the likelihood that M. Martin’s then-current employment would not survive expected cuts to federal funding (spoiler alert: it did not).
Given that RCD is essentially a sole proprietorship, I’m going to drop the pretense of third person voice. No one, human or otherwise, writes for this website other than myself. The original vision when I started this was to market myself as a self-taught generalist with decades of experience building, managing, and planning digital assets at scales ranging from small business/non-profit to large scale enterprises.
That vision has been forced to evolve as digital technology has rapidly changed in recent years. The advent of commercial AI systems and ‘vibe coding’ has somewhat devalued professionals in my field. As an early adopter of these technologies, I understand the value that they bring. But I also understand their deficiencies. An AI can certainly assume the role of a developer or designer or business analyst and carry out complex tasks.
What an AI cannot do, at least not yet, is exercise real world-based human judgment capable of directing such tasks. I can, I have. And I would be very happy to exercise those skills on your behalf.
About M. Martin
You can check my resume for the gritty details, but the TL;DR version is that I’m currently the tech director and co-founder of an online magazine (Testset) I helped an old friend start during the pandemic. My last ‘real job’ was deploying a new intranet for UW Medicine. Before that, I did consulting work for Intel. Before that, I managed consumer websites for Procter & Gamble. Before that, I spent the better part of a decade and a half as an extremely hands-on project manager leading mixed technical/creative teams in Chevron’s in-house agency.
Originally from Houston, Texas, I now live in Portland, Oregon. I moved here in 2013, after vacationing frequently in the Pacific Northwest for at least five years before relocating. There was no single motivating factor for moving, there were many. The extremely ‘blue’ inner city neighborhood where I’d lived for decades had essentially gentrified out from under me, simultaneous with Texas itself becoming more extremely ‘red’.
Add climate change into the mix, and you’ve covered the main points. I love living in the Pacific Northwest – ‘Cascadia’ is 100% a thing. The cultural sensibilities that made my old ‘hood in Houston unique are largely taken for granted here, and I can walk a couple of miles in the summer without risking heat stroke. I can also, if I am so inclined, drink some of the best beer and smoke some of the best weed on the face of the planet (just sayin’). Also, to quote Agent Cooper… There is some damned fine coffee.