XBRL--that is, eXtensible Business Reporting Language--still isn't in wide-spread use, though it's definitely coming, and rather quickly for big, publicly traded companies. But a recent proposal in congress may pave the way for even greater use. reports a proposal in the House that would require the federal government to "standardize the collection, analysis, and dissemination of business and financial information," through the use of XBRL, "to the maximum extent practicable."

That would appear to require federal agencies to accept reporting and disseminate reports in the format. It's unclear if other formats, like ASCII or .CSV, would be abandoned. The bill would give agencies a year to adopt XBRL. This could be either a nightmare transition or a boon to users of this data. The fact is, in unstructured form a lot of this is unusable. If it's in a usable form, the data could be a goldmine for researchers and others. All in all, you would be wise to continue investing in your XBRL efforts.