Any suggestions of how to get started? It's been a topic I have long been interested in but never found a good path to follow.

I've just started, but this looks like a nice tutorial: http://tutorials.jenkov.com/svg/index.html

Also if you use Atom you should install this package: https://atom.io/packages/svg-preview

Overall it's quite simple especially if you have experience with HTML and Canvas. Much easier for me than Inkspace.

It really kind of depends on what you want to do with the SVGs. They can cover topics such as icons, animations, UI, charts, reports, and so on. Just about anything you can imagine using a vector image instead of a raster applies. Many javascript libraries already exist to cover many of the usual situations. You can look into those and play with them to figure out where your interests lie.

And this isn't limited to web technologies and browsers.

I started learning SVG going through all the jenkov examples - really great resource. The SVGs I create now are designed to be easy to understand because I wanted to pay it forward. Have a pick through my other pens and maybe my channel http://YouTube.com/+framespark