s/sharing/releasing/ ? "sharing" is a verb that reads like it refers to the reader or that sharing any info at all from anyone (including reader/industry) was hard. A bit unclear there.

When was open government possible? A few hundred years ago, there was just about no running water. I think something like "open government wasn't even a possibility in FDR's time" or something like that would make it more jarring and make the issue more interesting/relevant to the reader.

> Throughout the history of communication tools – be it the printing press, fax machine, or floppy disks

Is `it` the right pronoun here? Are you talking about the history of those tools, or are you talking about the tools in the interjected phrase? Also, why not mention the telephone or telegraph? Seems to be only about written word and jumps from 1600 to 1980 pretty quickly, with nothing in between. Maybe "As communication tools have evolved over time, new tools have generally done three things: ..." (i.e. strike the list and don't talk about history directly?)

> lowered the cost to transmit information

`lowered the cost of transmitting information`?

> increased who that information could be made available to

I think it has to be `whom` here because `to` makes that dative case, which takes the `-m` suffix. Also, maybe say `increased to whom information could be made available`? The random `the` doesn't tell me what kind of info you're talking about.

> and increase how quickly that information could be distributed

Tense mix-up here, should be `increased`. Again, would strike `that` and just say `and increased the rate at which information could be distributed.`