Possibly Naive Question

All:

I just recently subscribed to the w3c-dist-auth@w3.org mail list.

After browsing the archives and meeting minutes for a while.
After reading Jim Whitehead's "Requirements on HTTP for Dist. Editing",
I found myself asking the question, "To a first approximation,
aren't we just reinventing a file system protocol (e.g. NFS,
Andrew, etc.)?"  Did I miss something important?  (Please, no
flame responses... I was not present at either of the first two
WG meetings, so I may be missing some important implicit context.)

Thanks,

-Wayne