today we modified the filesystem to use a new VFS system, where you can write plugins to interface with storage protocols, the local server's filesystem, etc. We tested it with two plugins, a file plugin (what's currently in alpha1) and a public plugin (which is a system-wide public folder to share files in).
Each plugin has it's own protocol (so the user's home folder would be file://, public would be public://). When no protocol is provided, it defaults to file://. Eventually we'll be able to write plugins for FTP, SCP, and webDAV access. We're still unsure if we're going to do this for alpha2 or if we should wait for 2.0. Still, very cool stuff.