[wp-hackers] Access to update plugin & giving credit to original author

[Mike Bijon]

I've recently updated a plugin that hadn't been touched in 2+ years. Does
anyone here know what the best practices for updating the plugin on the
WordPress Extend site are?

No response from the author in a week after trying contact. Will the
WordPress team grant me access to the original plug-in to publish the
update?
(BTW, this is it:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-friendsconnect-widget/)

Updating in-place seems like the best thing for the community since the
plugin still gets downloads. OTOH, it could use a lot of new features now
that the Google Plus APIs are out. Would I be better off giving the author
credit in text & code files, then starting a new plugin that has "Google
Plus" in the name?

Thanks all, -Mike