Server Data in Other Formats

[GrueZilla]

Hello.

I am interested in using the server data offered on the forums (online players, player base status, etc.) in order to amass a bunch of data and do all kinds of cool things with it.

For example, by polling the Players Online page (say every 5 minutes or so) and processing/logging the return, one could approximate time-spent-online for any character since the creation of the tool. I think it would also be interesting to make a visual representation of the population/popularity of each system.

Basically I just love data and doing things with it.

While it is certainly possible to build something to parse the data as-is from the forum HTML, I'm wondering if there's any way to gain access to said data in a more standardized format (XML, JSON, plaintext), because I'm lazy and want to save myself a little bit of work.

My real dream is to make some kind of companion application to Disco Freelancer, web-based or otherwise, that offers real-time (or close enough) server data to promote interaction and stuff, so if there's any data in addition to that offered by the forum pages linked in the sidebar that can be shared that'd be awesome as well.

Thanks in advance for any knowledgeable replies.