iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 6h

The upcoming release of the mapgl #rstats package supports donut charts for circle clustering. This won't be everyone's favorite technique, but I like how you can visualize the internal composition of clusters. Try it out live by clicking the "Clusters" option: walker-data.com/maps/census-...

030

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The improved clustering engine in the next release of freestiler can scale beyond a billion points with smooth performance. I've got a powerful MacBook but I did all the processing on a laptop. So many possibilities are getting unlocked in geospatial right now.

062

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Fade on zoom" is one of my favorite cartographic techniques. Interpolate a layer's opacity by zoom level to progressively show more data and eventually show all data at full zoom. Try it live in my latest project which maps the 2020 US Census by age group: walker-data.com/maps/census-...

0101

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The classic Racial Dot Map inspired me and a whole generation of mapmakers. Today, I'm publishing a modern take on this map, built with the geospatial tools I've been developing over the past decade. Interact with the map here: walker-data.com/maps/census-...

1165

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

New post: how to visualize millions of parcels on a map. Learn how I go from 14.3 million Texas parcel records in a 7GB geodatabase to a published interactive map. Featuring tools like DuckDB, PMTiles, R, and Cloudflare R2. Read it here: walker-data.com/posts/millio...

1244

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Mapped: % of US-born adults, by PUMA (~100k-200k people), born in their current state of residence. Lots to unpack in this one. Explore the interactive map: walker-data.com/maps/born-in... For those so inclined, the source code is here: gist.github.com/walkerke/875...

192

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Identifying possible gas-flare operators from satellite heat signals. Mapping persistent NASA VIIRS thermal detections across Texas, then matching the strongest candidates to nearby on-schedule RRC wells and their operators.

070

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I'm excited to share that I've received a grant from R Consortium to modernize R's tigris and tidycensus packages this summer. Over the past decade, tigris and tidycensus have become fixtures in R's demographic and spatial data ecosystems.

2486

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Understanding site accessibility by time-of-day is critical for emergency services, supply chain management, retail analytics, and more. Communicate this with @mapbox.com isochrones visualized with mapgl's new slider control in R.

0170

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

mapgl 0.5.0 for R lets you sync up as many maps as your browser can handle. Shown here: 16 distinct demographic maps for the Atlanta area; interact with one, the other 15 are kept in sync. Now I'm not necessarily recommending a 16-panel map... but it's fun to see what's possible.

070

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Vignette: optimized corridor routing over cost surfaces in R. Useful for pipeline routing, transmission line planning, trail planning, wildlife connectivity modeling, and more. walker-data.com/spopt-r/arti...

093

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Version 0.2.0 of freestiler, a Rust-powered vector tiling engine for R and Python, has landed on CRAN and PyPI. The highlight: produce vector tiles with dynamic H3 hexagonal binning built-in. Learn how: walker-data.com/freestiler/a...

081

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The new slider control in R's mapgl package (v0.5.0) isn't just for time-based filtering. Give it a list of paint expressions and you can animate changes over time on your map. Example: population changes at the tract level in Florida, animated in 3D.

080

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

A bivariate look at high-tech employment share and net migration across NUTS2 regions in Europe. Interactively mapped with R's mapgl using the new bivariate choropleth feature, now available in the package's 0.5.0 release. Credit to @milos-makes-maps.bsky.social for his inspirational examples!

131

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Animated, hierarchical origin-destination commute flows in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX. Downtowns, medical districts, airports, and suburban job hubs light up from 2023 LODES data. Now available in R's mapgl 0.5.0. Credit to @ekotov.pro for the implementation and @ilyabo.bsky.social for Flowmap.gl!

0175

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

The upcoming v0.5 release of mapgl for #rstats is going to be massive. Included: a slider control that allows for interactive data filtering - no Shiny required. Thanks to @ekotov.pro - brush a window over a histogram, see your data filter in real-time Lots more examples to share this week

1202

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Working on H3 integration into freestiler, my R/Python vector tiling tool. The new feature uses @duckdb.org internally to dynamically aggregate points into a multi-layer hexagonal tileset based on some function (summary stats, or your own custom SQL). Tiled here: 12M US groundwater wells

3412

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

I grew up in Oregon without air conditioning, it seemed quite normal at the time, we just pulled out the box fans when it got hot in the summer. Fascinating to explore the patterns in this new Census data - lots of areas around Oregon / the US where AC prevalence isn't as high as you might expect.

130

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Final reminder: today's the last day to grab my Census / mapping workshop catalog before the store shuts down tonight. Lifetime access to 25+ hours of recordings, 11 custom tutorials, $99. I really appreciate all of you who have bought it this week!

walkerdata.gumroad.com

All workshops clearance bundle

CLEARANCE: All past workshops can be purchased together for only $99!Get access to over 25 hours of recordings for thousands of dollars in savings. Workshops will be retired May 22nd - so act now!

000

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Mapped: the % of occupied housing units without air conditioning by Census tract. Uses the new U.S. Census Bureau LACE dataset. Map the data yourselves: gist.github.com/walkerke/71e...

062

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I'm archiving my R mapping & Census data workshop catalog permanently on Friday. walkerdata.gumroad.com/l/all-worksh... I've had a great time building examples for these workshops over the years. Here are a few of my favorites:

walkerdata.gumroad.com

All workshops clearance bundle

CLEARANCE: All past workshops can be purchased together for only $99!Get access to over 25 hours of recordings for thousands of dollars in savings. Workshops will be retired May 22nd - so act now!

110

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

146 million US jobs. Visualized by sector on a fast, filterable interactive map. Fly from market to market smoothly with @maptiler.bsky.social's geocoder. Explore for yourselves: walker-data.com/freestiler/l...

192

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

One of my favorite features in R's mapgl package: create custom, branded pop-ups for your interactive maps. Build a map template then use your AI agent to craft a pop-up that looks just the way you want. Learn how - workshops go away for good on Friday: walkerdata.gumroad.com/l/all-worksh...

050

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

The largest cities by area in the US that are not consolidated city-counties are: 1. Houston 2. Oklahoma City 3. Phoenix 4. San Antonio Here's NYC (inclusive of interior water) super-imposed over all four. Explore city sizes with my tool: walker-data.com/maps...

1100

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I'm retiring my R workshops. I'm as committed to R as ever, but the market for workshops has shifted & I'm focusing on other exciting ventures. I bundled the full catalog for $99; grab it (25+ hours, 11 tutorials) before I archive it on Friday. walkerdata.gumroad.com/l/all-worksh...

walkerdata.gumroad.com

All workshops clearance bundle

CLEARANCE: All past workshops can be purchased together for only $99!Get access to over 25 hours of recordings for thousands of dollars in savings. Workshops will be retired May 22nd - so act now!

1163

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

City boundaries in the US can be strange. I built a tool to help you explore and compare them. Choose a city, drag it around the map, compare with other cities in the US. Try it out: walker-data.com/maps/city-co...

141

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

I love living in Fort Worth. And I think it's cool that we're now the 10th largest city by population in the US. But it's important to put this into context.

061

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

An interactive legend color picker is coming to the next release of R's mapgl package. Specify a list of color ramp functions when you generate your palette for mapping; your data will automatically re-style with no need for Shiny. Learn more: walker-data.com/mapgl/articl...

0131

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Lots of new features landing in R's mapgl package as it approaches an 0.5.0 release. Today's drop: - An interactive color ramp picker for your legends - Native bivariate choropleth mapping Learn more: walker-data.com/mapg...

0224

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Not "flashy" for social media, but some useful quality-of-life features have landed in the development version of R's mapgl package: - Bezier curves and Bezier polygons in the draw control; - A coordinates control to track your mouse position (decimal or DMS);

190

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

In geospatial right now there's so much focus on AI and automating our work. But I still think there's room for hands-on exploration and careful, expert-guided spatial analysis. Just recorded this quick walkthrough on some brand-new features in mapgl. riverside.com/shared/expor...

riverside.com

Kyle | Apr 27, 2026 001 - Riverside - HD Podcast & Video Software

180

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

spopt, an R package for spatial optimization, is now in general release on CRAN. spopt-r is inspired by the Python package of the same name. Features include: - Regionalization algorithms for building contiguous districts / territories; - Facility location solvers;

2194

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Putting Codex 5.5 through its paces today. Some really cool (and useful) features, like interactive attribute editing, will be landing in #rstats's mapgl shortly...

040

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Mapping healthcare jobs clusters in Texas cities. Explore and filter the data yourselves: walker-data.com/free...

050

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Clustering is a highly effective technique for visualizing dense geospatial point data. With freestiler, you can build cluster-aware tilesets that intelligently aggregate points until you hit a desired max cluster zoom level. Shown here: visualizing 5 million points smoothly with clustering.

051

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

146 million US jobs. Styled by category on a fast, filterable interactive map. Explore it here: walker-data.com/freestiler/l... The map is powered by {freestiler}, a Rust-powered vector tiling tool that is now available in general release on CRAN.

1155

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Visualizing a time-series of Texas mining, quarrying, and oil & gas extraction jobs (NAICS21) by Census tract between 2002 and 2023 in 3D. Featuring a native slider control for R's mapgl package, currently in development.

0101

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

A new release of the mapgl R package (0.4.6) is now on CRAN. Get your hands on some major updates: - Static map helpers for image output / inclusion in Quarto reports; - Support for categorical rasters; - The latest @Mapbox GL JS with native PMTiles support

050

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Facility and route optimization on road network graphs can solve countless problems across many industries. However, these solvers often require expensive software to set up and run them, or expensive, rate-limited travel-time matrix APIs. The spopt-r R package offers a solution.

1296

Reposted by Kyle Walker

Pablo Tiscornia | Estación R @pablote.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

🎯 [TIP de R - RECURSO 📚] ¿Mapas interactivos sin servidores externos? Con {freestiler} creá archivos PMTiles desde R, ¡súper rápido y sin dependencias! Ideal para Shiny/Quarto. Más info: walker-data.com/freestiler/a... ✍🏽 @kylewalker.bsky.social #RStats #RStatsES #Rtips #DataScience

072

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

The Huff model is the classic algorithm in retail spatial analysis - and you can now use it in R. Predict: - Which store a customer is likely to visit - Sales potential per location - How new stores reshape the competitive landscape Learn more: walker-data.com/spop...

0244

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

New in spopt-r: optimized corridor routing on cost surfaces. Vignette: how to optimize a route for a produced water pipeline in Appalachia. Build a friction raster from inputs like terrain & land cover, then find the least cost path and evaluate diverse scenarios. walker-data.com/spopt-r/arti...

0164

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

An important tech use-case for LLMs that isn’t pure coding is deploying and managing cloud services For example, Google Cloud Platform is powerful but a total maze to navigate LLMs help me work through the menus, understand the CLIs, and prep deployment scripts

380

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Just implemented: support for categorical {terra} rasters in R's mapgl. Shown here: 7.6 million 300m x 300m grid cells across Texas derived from the 2024 NLCD, running fast natively in MapLibre. Closes a 2-year-old issue - was one that was more difficult to figure out than it seemed!

0171

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Teaching Gemma 4 (26b MoE) how to map Census data in R via OpenCode & oMLX in the Zed IDE. It's the first local LLM I've used that gets me real-time responsiveness. Running on a MacBook Pro M2 MAX, 64GB RAM. Not as smart as the frontier models - but it's running for free on my own hardware.

3163

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Set up Gemma 4 (26b MoE) via OpenCode and omlx for agentic coding on my MacBook It’s no Opus 4.6, but this is the first local model I’ve used that is actually capable of real work on my laptop

1210

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Can AI map land data in survey plats? Absolutely, if you set it up right. Shown here: extracting the surface hole, penetration point, and bottom hole coordinates from a permit plat PDF and plotting them with the lateral on an interactive map.

060

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

The freestiler R / Python package has been around for a month now, and it's proving to be one of the most useful tools I've built. Vector tiles are a must for high-performance visualization of large geospatial datasets, but creating vector tiles has long been tricky without specialized expertise.

1262

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

New in the R mapgl package: static maps! I developed mapgl to bring my favorite interactive mapping libraries to R. But - interactive maps are by definition hard to share in non-interactive formats. I'm rolling out a couple new functions I'm already finding useful:

1193

Kyle Walker @kylewalker.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

I'm struggling with an answer to "Can you share the code?" I've always been a big believer in open source software. I built my career on it. When I post a cool project / demo, inevitably I get the question "can you share the code?"

1101