jquery.color.js no longer maintained?

All,
I got bit by a number of bugs in the Color Animations plugin. So, I fixed them and uploaded the fix to the comments on the issue I submitted against it.
Then I noticed, other people have submitted patches as far back as almost 2 years ago. So it looks like this module is no longer being actively maintained.
If that is the case, how do we go about getting a new release out there?
More importantly, when will this functionality be added to the core? :)<br clear="all">
--
John Arrowwood
John (at) Irie (dash) Inc (dot) com
John (at) Arrowwood Photography (dot) com
John (at) Hanlons Razor (dot) com
--
<a href="http://arrowwood.blogspot.com">http://arrowwood.blogspot.com</a>
<a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pablo_picasso.html" target="_blank">Pablo Picasso</a> - "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."