Transcript
0:22 It is an incredible honor to be here to celebrate you and your families as you graduate from the very best possible public university in the world. Thank you for inviting me. Eighteen years ago, I was sitting exactly where you're sitting. Since then, things have changed. There was no text messaging or Wi Fi. People actually went to the library to get information. There was no World Wide web. There was fire, but there was no web.
0:54 But the Internet definitely has changed everything. I think a perfect example of this is that I had this friend who called me. She's been dating this guy for a while and she said, you know, I finally told him I loved him. I was like, oh, that's so wonderful. And she said, and I did it over email. And I was like, I'm a little old fashioned. I don't know if I would have done that. And she said, and I CC'd his family and then she said, and I BCC'd two of his ex girlfriends.
1:26 So that is just a perfect example of how technology can accomplish so much so quickly. They recently announced they were getting married on Facebook. And I am sure we will hear about the pregnancy on Twitter. You could say UC Berkeley is in my DNA. My mother came to Cal from Detroit and was the first in our family to graduate from here. My stepmother came here also. My brother and sister went to Cal and they always told me who the best professors were and where the best parties were.
1:59 And one night, five years after I graduated, I was at this event and I met this very handsome man and he was this artist and he said he did research in robotics. And then I found out that he was a professor at Cal. And we've been married ever since. And guess where we want our two daughters, age 1 and 7, Odessa and Electra, to go? We hope they're going to go to Cal. Go Bears. When I graduated in 1992, it wasn't such a great time in the world.
2:34 There was a war in the Middle east, there was a really bad recession. There wasn't a lot of jobs. Does that sound familiar? But I truly believe that it's in these challenging times that you have the unique opportunity to do something different. There's no lucrative jobs luring you away from what you really want to do. That's an opportunity because you have to dig down deep and say, what do I really want to do?
3:06 And you know, I was very lucky because both of my parents loved what they did. So there was never any question. You know, I watched them work very hard. They went to college, they both got doctorates, and they Loved what they did. So that was like, no question. I had to love what I do. And I think that it's important to re say what the Chancellor said, which was that Berkeley has the highest number of graduates, where it's the first person in the family to graduate from college.
3:34 That is so huge. It's such an amazing achievement. You are blazing a trail. And all the women graduating today, We are only here because of what our mothers and our grandmothers did.
4:06 Now, they blazed a trail, but we definitely need to make that trail wider. We need to make more space for women in new roles in society. So I'm thankful all of you women here are going to help me make that trail a little wider and push a little further. We've got to push on that edge. And, you know, my father used to always say, if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up way too much space.
4:35 So when I was graduating again, the no pressure, and I was going to love what I did, and anything was possible. And I'd been making films at Cal, and I really wanted to make my first feature film. I graduated from school. The fact that there was no money out there, I had no money to make the film wasn't going to stop me because Spike Lee had just made his first feature on credit cards. So I started charging many things, and I enlisted all of my friends to be crew and cast.
5:03 And I had this really ambitious project. I wanted to make this film that took place entirely inside of someone's brain, where people represented thoughts. And I wanted to shoot on Alcatraz because I wanted it to be the place where forbidden thoughts were imprisoned. Okay? So I didn't have any way to do that. But I went to the phone book. That's what we used to do back then. And I looked up the head of the National Park Service and I saw his number there, and I called him up.
5:30 I'm like, I want to do this film. We don't have any money, but we got a lot of energy. We really want to do it. And you know what he said? He said, okay. And he said, I'll send a crew, a ferry over for your crew, and you can stay the night. Now, the moral of that story is moxie. A lot of doors have opened in my life when I've invoked a little moxie. It's like this magic potion.
5:55 Now, moxie used to be the name of medicine that would build up your nerve. But these days, it's a mixture of being bold, fearless, and a little outrageous. But I never finished that film, it's sitting in my garage unedited. It was my big failure. And I felt like I let everybody down, all the people that volunteered. I was really depressed. It was very humbling. And it was a really important experience I went through.
6:28 Because after that three year ordeal, every little success after that, whether it was big or small, it tasted that much sweeter because I knew what it was like to be flat on my back feeling like the biggest loser in the world. So failing is okay, and it's okay to fail really big now. What I learned most from those experiences allowed me to do what I did next. Because the way I climbed out of debt is I worked in technology.
6:56 And I was working on. I'd been working technology since I was a kid, and I was working on these music CD ROMs. You probably don't even know what a CD ROM is. But anyways, I was living in Seattle and my roommate came over to me and he's like, you've got to come over to my computer. There's this new invention called the web. And he showed me my first website, and there was people from Japan and London talking about shared musical interests.
7:20 And I was absolutely blown away by the potential of that. I was thinking, like, this is going to change the world. And I came back to San Francisco, and shortly thereafter, I was given the opportunity to create the Webby Awards from scratch. I was ready to take another risk. At that time, people didn't know what the web was. You guys don't know this, but it was really geeky to be into the web at all. It was really geeky.
7:46 It wasn't cool. No one really understood it. It was very complicated. So I wanted to kind of reimagine the Academy Awards, but I really don't like long acceptance speeches. So I made acceptance speeches. Five words or less. Now, my favorite acceptance speech during my whole time at the Webby's was from Al Gore. He said, please don't recount this vote. This time I didn't use my charge card. I raised money from sponsors. I had that same enthusiasm.
8:15 I was like, engaging people on what this could be, this thing called the web. I even called Mayor Willie Brown at the time. I'm like, I'm doing. I was like, 26. I'm doing this award show. Will you come to Bimbo's nightclub in San Francisco and will you just introduce the show? And you know what he said? Okay. Then I wanted to create an academy. And so me and my team, we wanted to think of a name that was as big as we wanted this to be.
8:40 So we called it the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. I know, lot of moxie, right? We invited David Bowie and Francis Ford Coppola and you know what they said? Said okay. And I felt so lucky. I got to spend my time honoring people. I mean, I felt so proud of you all walking in here and that's kind of like what the Webbies were like. We got to say, good job, you've done a good job.
9:07 And this amazing ripple effect can happen when you put that kind of good energy into the world. So it was a very exciting time. There was even one point where the mayor of New York, which was Mayor Giuliani, wanted to bring the Webbies to New York. So suddenly I was like 28. Mayor Brown and Mayor Giuliani were fighting over the Webby Awards. It was like one of the most surreal times of my life. And I'll never forget, it was in 2000 that these two young guys that no one knew rollerbladed onto the stage to get their first Webby Awards.
9:37 They were wearing capes and they were the founders of Google. The Bay Area felt like the center of the world. If you were young and under 30, the world was yours. Then in 2000, the Internet bubble burst. It was a very difficult time. Websites were shutting down, sponsors left. I had to lay out a lot of our staff. It was very hard. Everyone in the press was saying the Internet was a fast, it was going to go away and we knew it wasn't the case, but it was really hard.
10:11 And then 911 happened and I think that the whole country started re evaluating and doing a lot of soul searching, including me. After working 70 hour weeks, Ken and I really wanted to start a family and I had to figure out, and as a woman, this is going to be the big challenge for all of you is how can I make the most impact and be a mother. And I didn't want to work 70 hour weeks anymore and I wanted to get back to filmmaking.
10:36 This was very excited, but it kind of taken me off my main passion, which was filmmaking. So then I thought I want to make films combined with the power of the web to truly make change. So at the Webbies I started making these films about social issues and experimenting with the Internet. And we continued to honor people and we tightened our belts and we worked very hard to make it happen. And we eventually brought on partners from New York.
11:01 When I look back on my 10 years doing the Webby's, it was very exciting, but it was a lot of work. Like everything is. And the point is, if you do something you love, it won't feel like work. So at this point, I'm in my late 30s. I was able to focus on making films. I have this great filmmaking team, Ken and I had a wonderful daughter, Odessa. And I was able to work from home to be with Odessa, because the Internet, I think, was the tool that the feminist movement needed to help fulfill that dream.
11:30 Where you can participate in society and have children. Yes, it's important. Don't forget to have children, ladies. And I was working on this new film called Connected, about what it means to be connected in the 21st century. And life was going pretty well. Then in 2008, my father, who I'm extremely close with, was diagnosed with brain cancer. And that same week, I found out I was pregnant.
12:00 And for the next nine months, I focused on life and death. Each day I talked with my dad about everything. I filmed him. I said everything I wanted to say to him, and he said everything he wanted to say to me. I was so scared of what the world would be like without him. And then a year ago, exactly this week, on May 11th, my father died. And then just days later, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
12:29 And it made me think about what it means to be connected in a whole different way. It made me think about life in a different way, about how valuable it is and how fragile it is and how short it is and how important it is to be present and how important it is to occasionally unplug. How important it is to tell everybody that you love them, to thank them, to share with them, to say what you're grateful for every day, write it down and say it out loud.
13:00 And how you've got to give it your all in this lifetime. How valuable the knowledge is that our parents and our teachers taught us. And while I was so worried what the world would be like without him, I understand that everything he taught me is still guiding me right now, right here as I'm talking to you. Even though I was a little nervous to do it, he was with me.
13:33 And also all that he taught me, I get to pass that down to our daughters. And it made me want to give all that I've learned and all that energy I have to give to my family and my community and the world. And the whole experience pushed me to think deeply about how can I make the world a better place? What's the best way to move forward? With all that I've been given and with all that I've learned, everyone in this room has been given so much to be sitting here.
14:01 And it's probably what you're thinking about right now. What's the best way for you to move forward in this world to make it better? Because we all know the world needs us. We're facing a vast array of interconnected problems. The economy, the environment, expanding women's rights, overpopulation, poverty, progress without thinking of consequences, health care, nuclear proliferation, access to education, the massive oil spill that's happening right now. There are a lot of problems, and we faced these problems before.
14:35 But because the world is so connected and there's so many more people, the stakes are that much higher. A problem in one area has the potential to affect so many people in other places. But the good news is that you have everything you need to know to make it better. The Talmud has the saying that when you teach your children, you teach your children's children. You all embody all that your professors taught you and all that your parents taught you and what their professors and their parents taught them.
15:06 You stand here at the forefront of civilization, embodying all that we have learned collectively as humans, pushing on that edge, pushing towards understanding things more completely. All of you came of age in the time when the whole world is being connected with technology. Today, there are a billion people online. So while I thought it was exciting when the Web first started, it's infinitely more exciting right now. And if someone said to you, if you could be alive during any period in history, during any invention, would it be the invention of fire or agriculture?
15:38 Or would you want to be alive when the whole world and all the minds are being connected like it is today? The Internet, in many ways, has given the world a central nervous system. What an amazing time to be alive. What an amazing time to be graduating from UC Berkeley in 2010. In a lot of ways, the Web has taught us how to connect. And I look for connections.
16:08 And I think John Muir said it beautifully when he said, when you tug at a single thing in the universe, you find it's attached to everything else. In the past 10,000 years, we've been struggling to make sense of the world by breaking things down. We've been looking through microscopes. We've been dissecting and abstracting and breaking it all down. It brought us amazing inventions, this approach of reduction. It brought us calculus, electricity, the theory of relativity, and many brilliant ideas you studied here.
16:37 Divide and conquer has been our primary strategy, but now it's time to focus on how to put the pieces back together. It's time to look at the connections. We spend so much time looking for information online, and it becomes that much more important to understand the context when you find the information. And the good news is that a good education at UC Berkeley provides you with that context. And looking at how the world is connected is exactly the context we need to find solutions.
17:07 We can find new ways to share ideas and to help solve problems. And new, bold ideas will come from all of us being engaged together. It's going to take us to a new place. A leap in understanding, a leap in doing, a leap in making things better for everyone. I truly believe that we're at the beginning of a Zeitgeist. We're shifting the way that we're thinking. And now we're thinking of the world as we need to, as a system where everything affects everything.
17:33 Now, at times, that can feel incredibly overwhelming, like, how can I possibly make change in such a complicated world with so many problems? But the good news is, if you want to make change in a complex system, all you have to do is make a little change, and the ripple effect will be huge. You can make such huge impact. You just need to figure out which strands you're going to pull on. So what's going to be your strand?
18:01 Margaret Mead once said, never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Throughout history, we've been breaking things down, and it's time to put them back together for our future. I'm so glad that you're going to be graduating today and you're going to join us in this effort. You know these tools better than any of us. I can't wait to see what you do to make the world a better place.
18:28 Because for centuries, we've been declaring independence, and perhaps it's time to finally declare our interdependence. I invite you to join me in an experiment. I'm kicking off today where we're asking graduates here and all over the world to declare your hopes and your thoughts for the future. I believe that if you can name it, you're that much closer to making it happen. There are a whole bunch of my film crews that will be here afterwards to film you.
19:00 And there's info on your seats. And all 11,000 of you in this theater, I hope you can stay connected with me because we can ignite a lot more change together than we can apart. Graduates, please be sure to thank your parents today and all the people who allowed you to be here today. I know they're so proud of you. I know my father would have been incredibly proud to be here today, and my mother, who continues to guide me, and my family and friends who are all here.
19:33 I made a short little film just for you, covering a few things to remember on your journey. Here it is. Sun is shining in the sky? There ain't a cloud Insight, It's a raining? Everybody's in the place? And don't you know It's a beautiful Running down the avenue?
20:10 See how the sun shines, baby? And this is. Now I leave you with my favorite quote by Goethe. Whatever you think or dream, you can do. Begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
20:43 So congratulations, Class 2010. Your journey is ahead. Began it. Be bold. Thank you.