David Jordan, another North American, offers a short, but perceptive account, including interesting comments on why Esperanto succeeds as a language.  He suggests that prior knowledge of Esperanto may promote more rapid progress in learning other languages.   His page concludes with insightful comments from a sometime UN translator, Claude Piron.   Do read as far as the unfortunate plight of a female Danish government minister!

Yves Bellefeuille maintains a set of Frequently Asked Questions on a Canadian site, which covers somewhat similar ground to the above entries.  Issues arising from using Esperanto on the computer and the internet are also discussed, although some of the details may need further updating.

What is Esperanto?

There is a well-argued overview of Esperanto written and kept up to date by Donald Harlow of California.  The article offers a wider range of details than you might expect, e.g. on constructed languages and the opinions of some twentieth century governments.  It contains practical suggestions on how you might use Esperanto and where you could find more information via the net in many countries across the world.  

A condensed, but highly technical answer to the above question is offered by Ed Robertson on the Scottish Esperanto Association's website.  Professional inquirers are directed to further reading, including the book by Christopher Gledhill, "The Grammar of Esperanto: A corpus-based description" (2nd edition), München: Lincom, 2000

"The world has a serious language problem.  We have a solution which is easy, useful, and most importantly, fair"  So opens a short but exemplified account from the British Esperanto Association.