Package maintainers, I feel like such an outsider

Hi all,

Sorry for this little lost sheep mail, but even after pouring over the documentation many times, I really cant find a solution to my issue.

I'm a developer of some 3rd party applications, one of which is getting some traction with a wider audience. For some time I've looked at documentation and articles about how to get a package into the Debian repositories. Unfortunately, with no luck - since it seems to me that I need to have some relationships with people at Debian, that have access. (?)

Recently, I found that one of the libraries I use has just dropped off the Debian repositories (https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=751916). This kills the USP for my application. I can provide a .deb to my users for my app, but cannot for the requisite libraries.

So, my question is this. Is there anything I can do, as someone with no special merit or connections at Debian, but with time, technical skill and the motivation to see this happen, to get the "pHash" re-included into the repositories?

And, second (to a lesser degree for now) start the ball rolling in getting my application into the repositories?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(I originally posted this question on debian-users (https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2016/04/msg00947.html), who suggested it was more appropriately directed here. There was also some interesting feedback from 'Thomas Schmitt', who suggested that if I could fix the outstanding bugs, and bring the code up to the current upstream version, things would get moving. I can certainly do that, but wouldn't know how to progress from there.)

Many many thanks.

Wayne Booth.