It sounds like there may be some interest in bringing p2pool (or a similar concept) closer to the reference Bitcoin implementation (whether that be a change in the protocol, bundling p2pool with the reference client, or simply giving p2pool a stronger online presence in connection with bitcoin.org).

I'd like to try and gauge interest in the various approaches to solving this problem, and perhaps (if it hasn't been done already) formalize some kind of plan of action.

The possible directions I'm seeing are (and these are not mutually exclusive):

• More discussion leading to a formal BIP submission with changes to the Bitcoin protocol and reference client. Then, I guess we wait and hope that either the core team can get to accepting and implementing that BIP sooner rather than later (understanding that there are numerous accepted BIPs whose priority seem to be uncertain), or someone else can step up to the challenge... makes we wonder though how many developers outside the core team there really are that have the expertise, familiarity with Bitcoin, and incentive to contribute such a fundamental change in the timeline needed.
• More discussion about improvements to p2pool (as the separate piece of software it is now) attempting to address any technical shortcomings of p2pool (scaling, speed, hardware requirements, etc).
• More discussion about improving the non-technical issues of p2pool - public awareness, user experience improvements, etc.
• Discussing ways to add resources/velocity to the speedy development of one or more of the solutions above (in the form of crowdfunding, offering bounties, raising developer awareness, etc).

So my question is: how can we best contribute to this issue being solved effectively in the quickest timeframe possible?

What do the core developers feel is most needed at this point? Can we all try and reach some kind of consensus as to how this should be addressed? I feel like unless we can (most of us anyway) concentrate our efforts on one of these things, we are wasting time and resources by chasing a number of different proposals. In theory (with open-source software like Bitcoin), a number of separate contributing groups can work on different solutions to the same problem, and I suppose the best of many potential solutions would naturally emerge, but in the case of Bitcoin, I get the feeling that the number of developers in a position to make these kinds of changes is somewhat limited, and we don't have the time to wait for a solution to just roll around "naturally".

Any thoughts or opinions on how best to move forward to address this concern?

I'm afraid that if we don't act quickly, these discussions will merely become artifacts of a failed cryptocurrency replaced by something better - all because we couldn't fix these kinds of issues fast enough.