I submit Fargo, ND for your consideration. We have oil money, cheap cost of living, and a decent tech community.
I have several friends who have stayed there after graduating from NDSU to work as developers and engineers. If you make $50K/year you can easily live high on the hog. It also continues to keep a "small town" feel even though its grown a ton over the past ten years.
(a) Fargo's local government would be supportive of a technology Autonomy Fund, and...
(b) it would be possible to get a critical mass of engineers to live there?
Also, what's the gender balance? I'm married so I don't care, but I think we'd have the best odds in a town where it's at least 53:47 women.
For myself? Not a chance in hell. Sorry, I lived in Grand Forks for several years, and between the wind, extreme temperature differences, and flooding, you'd not be able to get me to live there. Sure, you could eventually offer enough money, but it wouldn't fit in this plan.
1) Cheap airfare, international destination
2) A Party Town, probably helps the gender balance in one aspect, people would like to visit you.
3) No Income Tax
4) Still close to the SF Bay Area
5) Never cold, barely rains (good or bad depending on your preferences)
6) Really cheap real estate. Buy a townhouse for under $100k!
7) Many tech conventions are hosted there
8) Driving from one corner to another takes only 30 minutes according to google maps.
If we could set up Autonomy Funds we could reshape this industry.
b) impossible
As I think about it, I don't want the governments footing the bill. I'd prefer to have at least 50% private investment (1:! matching?) as long as it's willing to stay passive enough not to interfere with engineer autonomy. Furthermore, over the long term, I'd want the ability of engineers to buy into the fund.