Hi Hive account@lukestokes,
Let me start out by saying I really like all you have done for the EOS community and Steemit. Now on to your questions.

1. I get data feeds from Alohaeos, who are part of the EOSmechanics team. I have updated the site and talk more about this. I'm not sure when is the last time you visited? https://eosratings.com/eos-bp-ratings-proxy/
2. So, performance, popular vote and BP validation I get from the above.
3. The VAM I get from the eosratings.com site database that I run.
4. As for the Global Distribution I get from the get_producers API https://api.eosnewyork.io:443/v1/chain/get_producers.
   Basically, I have multiple scripts I have created in python and dump to a mysql database then do some simple math to get the point system. It's not too complicated and could be explained over a cup of coffee.

Currently EOSDAC is ranked 12th on my list

So....

Thank you for these links and tools. Awesome progress. I have added them to the VAM. Welcome to the Matrix :-).

Keep up the great work and I hope the EOS community continue to get stronger by the moment.
Thanks,
~S