We’re wrong to think that today’s powerful social media tools are particularly groundbreaking – they are in fact a return to working methods that were popular centuries ago.

At least, that’s Charles Leadbeater’s argument in my Easter reading, the excellent book We-Think – Mass Innovation, Not Mass Production. I haven’t finished the book yet, but it’s already proved to be highly accessible and more dynamic/exciting than the slightly worthy Wikinomics.

Leadbeater’s point is that collaboration and sharing are as old as village life itself, and digital technology has forced concepts like ‘the commons’ to rise again through its leveling effect on all media. He reminds us that most of the great stories – from the Bible to the works of Shakespeare – were born from a history of shared storytelling, with bits added and changes made by whole range of voices.

It’s well worth bearing this in mind when worrying about the way traditional publishing/broadcasting is being decimated by the unstoppable march of progress. Huge profits for a few rights-holders can no longer be assured, but we’re not going to see the end of culture that some of the more blinkered commentators like to predict.

I imagine the rest of We-Think is going to be equally optimistic, and I can‘t help agreeing that all this is a natural progression from a rather brief period of human history where a few people controlled the storytelling tools for a while.