1. A computer program product for installation and execution on a computer system to thereby operate the computer system as an intelligent node in a distributed network, said computer program product comprising: a run-time environment for dynamically instantiating and executing software agents native to the run-time environment, in accordance with user-configured software agent definitions, wherein the software agents executing within the run-time environment define the distributed network behavior of the intelligent node and define the rules for advertising and sharing that distributed network behavior within the distributed network; an application control module for controlling specified third-party applications installed on the computer system, and for enabling the software agents executing within the run-time environment to interact with the specified third-party applications; and a communication engine for pulling or otherwise receiving user-configured software agent definitions into the intelligent node from elsewhere in the distributed network, for dynamic instantiation and execution within the run-time environment.