Indeed it will.

Within the SELFMAN project, there are four key areas determined to be vital in order for a distributed application to have the ability to manage itself: self-configuring, self-tuning, self-healing, and self-protecting.

To configure itself, an application needs to track all of its components, update them when needed, and make sure that all the different pieces are able to communicate with each other. Within the SELFMAN system, an individual component can be queried for this information, such as its version number and which other components it interacts with. If the version number is out-of-date, it would be automatically updated.

The self-tuning piece of the system involves having the application automatically adjust to changing loads as well as changes taking place among the various nodes on the network. To do so, it uses a load-balancing algorithm that detects overloads, node crashes, and other disruptions.

What was more challenging for the researchers was the self defense aspect of the SELFMAN system. They discovered that the safest systems were not those in which nodes are directly linked, but those in which nodes can communicate with other nodes in just a few steps. Within these sorts of networks, dubbed "small world" networks, the SELFMAN security service can automatically detect abnormal behavior and eject bad nodes as needed.

Results So Far

Already the team has had promising results. For example, Scalaris, an open-source scalable transactional storage for Web 2.0 services won first prize in the IEEE International Scalable Computing Challenge 2008. Peer-to-peer video streaming application PeerTV uses SELFMAN to quickly test an evaluate new P2P components. There's also a demo of a distributed Wikipedia that can handle more queries than the current version and a graphics program that lets multiple users collaborate on a design.

Van Roy believes that SELFMAN represents the first step towards an internet filled with "unbreakable" applications. "Right now we're just scratching the surface," he says.

For more information about these applications, stay tuned to ICT Results, a European research tracking firm, which will soon highlight the various applications in more detail.

Social networking site MySpace is releasing a set of APIs later today that will allow developers to implement protocols for exchanging and synchronizing user profiles between their own applications and MySpace profiles. Users can share their basic profile information, as well as their MySpace photos, videos, and friend list.

As we reported earlier, MySpace has signed up a number of high profile partners for this launch: Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and Photobucket.

As Steve notes, if MySpace's Data Availability API is adopted by a large enough number of sites, it could make MySpace the de facto host for social network profiles.

The details around Facebook Connect are still a bit unclear, but Facebook will probably update its developer community about its plans at next month's F8 conference.

For users, being able to have their profiles linked between different services is a major step forward in terms of usability. It would be very convenient to have a Twitter profile automatically synch with a MySpace (or any other service's) friend list, or only having to update photos on Photobucket and then see them directly on MySpace.

- From semantic Web (3.0) to the WebOS (4.0); Dan Farber has done a good job of summarizing Nova Spivack's wordy article about Web 3.0 and 4.0. As Dan remarked, "the concept of Web 3.0 is still a bit fuzzy, and Web 4.0, the WebOS on Nova's map, is really hazy." Still, it's always fun and interesting to think about where the Web is headed.

- Soapbox Now in Public Beta; Microsoft's YouTube is released to the masses. Add it to the list.

- Google to sell additional space for Gmail users?; makes sense for power users, although for PR reasons Google may just want to keep just raising the cap slightly over time - so that the perception of Gmail as a free webmail service isn't affected, especially since it's finally open to the world.

- Index Ventures Closes €350M Fund; with a focus on building global companies (such as Skype, Netvibes, Last.fm), Index is one of the most interesting VC firms around right now - and they're based in Europe. They also announced today the addition of former Skype global marketing VP Saul Klein as a venture partner.

- Offline Zimbra with Firefox; kiwi Chris Double has been testing offline support for Zimbra in Firefox, as a proof of concept of new Firefox offline capabilities (which we noted earlier this week).

- Yahoo Messenger integrates with Y! Mail; originally previewed in November, the IM/mail integration is being rolled out to all Yahoo! Mail beta users over the next few months. The feature allows users to see their friends’ status and avatars, as well as exchange instant messages in within their browser inbox. Nicely done and is better integrated than Google Talk is with Gmail.

- 2008: The Year of President 2.0?; "At this early stage the techniques deployed by wannabe presidents amount to a start-up bakeoff. What politico can use the Web best to get eyeballs, money and momentum?" Hmmm, sounds like blogging these days!

- Social Networking Sites Opening Their APIs; most telling comment: "MySpace declined to comment." But Facebook, orkut, Friendster, and my old employer Marc Canter's PeopleAggregator, are all working to open up their social networking platforms.

- New Web safety institute unveiled; the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) aims to promote kids safety on the Web.

- Internet Boom in China Is Built on Virtual Fun; NY Times continues the western fascination with all things China. This article profiles Tencent and their dominant mobile entertainment and IM service called ‚ÄúQQ‚Ä? - which "has reached more than 100 million users, or nearly 80 percent of the market." The crux of the piece is that US companies like Google and Yahoo have largely not succeeded in China because they haven't adapted to China‚Äôs Internet market, "which is geared primarily to entertainment and mobile phones".

- New Panama Ranking System For Yahoo Ads Launches Today; as Search Engine Land explains, Yahoo's Panama ad system is designed to take "ad quality and other factors into consideration in determining how ads are ranked on search results pages (a system similar to that long used by Google)." The high level question most are asking is whether Yahoo has left this move far too late, to seriously challenge the dominant Google AdWords?

- New Google Mini Integrates Google Analytics; more evidence of product integration happening at Google.

- Digg further reduces the influence of top diggers; what makes this so fascinating is that Digg is trying to make their site more democratic, but at the same time not piss off their top users (too much). It's a delicate balancing act for Digg.

- del.icio.us now has 1.5 million users, according to the official blog; Also talks about doing "more meaningful joint development work" with its parent company Yahoo, including re-doing the UI.

- Amazon Q4 Announcements; sales up 34% including "for the first time, non-Media dollar growth [e.g. electronics] exceeded Media dollar growth"; also interesting notes about endless.com, their experimental shoe and handbag website, and a 55% increase in developers registered to use Amazon Web Services (now over 220,000 developers). See also ZDNet's analysis.

- Digg continues the War On Gaming; Kevin Rose says they are removing the Top Diggers list and are also aiming to improve social networking via interests (i.e. topics).

- WSJ profiles Netvibes, Pageflakes; Walt Mossberg concludes that "Netvibes -- and competitors like Pageflakes -- will give My Yahoo a run for its money. They provide an easy way to cut through the clutter of information that confronts us all." It'll be interesting to see if Yahoo develops its own personalized start page, or whether they'll acquire Netvibes or Pageflakes...

- The Web Profile Aggregators; Frank Gruber has a great post outlining all the Web identity aggregators - and there are a lot of them! Frank recommends Spokeo, but he has good things to say about most of them.

- Flickr abandons the "old skool"; Yahoo is discontinuing the old email-based Flickr sign-in system and from 15 March, all users will be required to have a Yahoo ID to sign-in to Flickr. They're also restricting a user's contacts to 3000. Steve O'Hear writes that "in upsetting those early adopters I can't help thinking that Yahoo just broke one of the golden rules of 2.0." Personally I think it's a storm in a teacup - so you need to change your login process?! Remember that many people these days regularly change their identity. So this Flickr move is not a big deal IMHO, although they should find another way round the 3000 limit.

- Microsoft Zune Phone In the Works; Grunchgear speculates that Microsoft is working on a smartphone to be branded under the Zune moniker, but that it won't run the Windows Mobile OS (why? won't the Apple iPhone use OS X?). Crunchgear says it will be able to sync with the Xbox 360 and stream video from the system to the phone via a wireless data connection. I think this tip is plausible, although Microsoft was proclaiming at CES that it was already number 1 with Windows Mobile (outselling Blackberry). So Microsoft would be competing with its own phone partners on such a device....

- J Allard takes Zune reins; In related news, J Allard - the guy credited as a major force behind Xbox - has now taken charge of the Zune program. This signals Microsoft is very serious about getting the Zune brand up to the high standards of the iPod. They can start by losing the brown color....