uriel, remain calm. he said the discussion was among the people who ran last year's application. that's fine: they can have whatever conversations they like, wherever they like. if they've decided their time is better spent elsewhere, that's their decision.
on the specific actions suggest, too, i'm all for them. it sounds like they're thinking about some very directed actions that could get good results. and those sorts of actions also, in my estimation, match with the sorts of "community" considerations Google uses for evaluation. there's certainly no conflict there. for myself, i still think a GSoC application is worth the time, and I still intend to do one.