1. A system, comprising: intelligent system elements; each of a plurality of the intelligent system elements including a light source and being configured as a lighting device, and at least one of the intelligent system, elements: including a user interface component and being configured as a lighting controller, or including a detector and being configured as a sensor; wherein each respective intelligent system element further includes: a communication interface configured to enable communication via a link of a data communication network available to the intelligent system elements; a processor coupled to the light source, the user interface component or the detector and coupled to communicate via the communication interface and the network link; a memory accessible to the processor; programming in the memory which configures the processor to control operations of the respective intelligent system element as a lighting device, a lighting controller or a sensor and which configures the processor to implement distributed processing functions, including functions to: when the respective intelligent system element has a processing job to perform using resources of others of the intelligent system elements: query the other intelligent system elements and receive responses from the other intelligent system elements as to whether or not the other intelligent system elements have processing or memory resources available for the processing job; based on the responses, allocate portions of the processing job to a plurality of the other intelligent elements; send data and instructions to each intelligent system element of the plurality of the other intelligent system elements, for performing an allocated portion of the processing job; receive from at least some of the plurality of the other intelligent system elements results of the performance of the allocated portions of the processing job; processing the received results to determine an overall result of the processing job; and performing an action based on the overall result of the processing job.