Various types of ecological and evolutionary datasets are widely available on the web. Recent changes to data management plans from NSF, data deposition requirements of prominent journals, and the emergence of well-developed repositories like Dryad, TreeBASE, DataONE, KNB, NBII, GBIF have opened a wealth of potential. Leveraging such resources can facilitate novel synthesis and greater collaboration among researchers without the need to engage in new data collection efforts. We have created a suite of tools (http://ropensci.org) that allow access to these data repositories through a statistical programming environment that is already a familiar part of the workflow of many scientists. Our tools not only facilitate drawing data into an environment where it can readily be manipulated, but also one in which those analyses and methods can be easily shared, replicated, and extended by other researchers. Please visit esa.ropensci.org before the meeting for additional workshop materials.