Where a plurality of personal portable devices communicating with each other through a personal wireless network are to cooperate to perform a task made up of a plurality of task portions, the task portions are automatically distributed among the personal portable devices at least partially in response to comparisons between the capabilities required to perform each task portion and the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices. In making such comparisons, the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices that are actually available for the performance of one or more of the task portions at the time such comparisons are made may be taken into account, and further, such comparisons may be repeated as the capabilities of each of the personal portable devices that are actually available change over time.