diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9762da6..10a8774 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -108,9 +108,14 @@ the default confab console script:
     so that given an environment named "foo" and a role named "bar", configuration data would be
     merged between **default.py**, **foo.py**, and **bar.py**.
     
-    Confab uses the convention that each module's *__all__* value defines  its data, e.g.:
-
-        __all__ = {'foo': 'bar'}
+    Confab uses the *__dict__*, but filters out any entries starting with '_' e.g.:
+
+        foo = 'bar'
+		_ignore = this'
+		
+	Results in:
+	
+	    {'foo': 'bar'}
 
  -  Generated and remote configuration files will always be saved to a directory named after
     the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the target host.
diff --git a/confab/data.py b/confab/data.py
index e6dae4d..e815ed7 100644
--- a/confab/data.py
+++ b/confab/data.py
@@ -36,13 +36,12 @@ def import_configuration(module_name, data_dir):
     """
     Load configuration from file as python module.
 
-    Treats module's __all__ value as the configuration dictionary.
+    Returns publicly names values in module's __dict__.
     """
 
-    # use __all__ as the module's dictionary
     def as_dict(module):
         try:
-            return module.__all__
+            return {k: v for k, v in module.__dict__.iteritems() if not k[0:1] == '_'}
         except AttributeError:
             return None