What does "Following" someone do?

[Sharetha H.]

This may be a silly question, but what does "following" someone on BP do?  Ideally, I would think that I would be able to see whenever that person writes an article/blog post or posts to the forum or does any other kind of activity, but it seems like I can only see these things if I am actually a "colleague" of the person.  Is this that the way it's supposed to work?  If so, what does following someone actually do?  Thanks.