Distributed File System

The project is for a distributed file system using TCP to keep content between different machines consistent and current. I have users writing documentation or specifications for projects and it is constantly out of date or people work on the wrong versions. Despite attempts to work this out w/ version control or content control or special folders and email, I think a distributed file system might be better. What I hope for is a java program that allows replication of changes in files or creation of new files or new directories to other machines that are listed as subscribers or clients. So, if I am working a specification, make changes to the doc, it gets propagated to the other machines that have subscribed to it. If a rearrange directories by project or release those changes get propagated to the subscribing machines. A nice feature would be to have it go both ways. I've taken a shot at this w/ Java and sockets but can't get the "how" of transferring a file or sending commands to create directory structures on other machines. I don't want to use FTP and want this to be transparent to users.