A computer-implemented method of defining a set of annotation elements to map a concept to electronic data as input data; generating a mapping rule, according to the set of annotation elements defined and a sample of the input data; mapping the concept to the input data by applying the mapping rule to the input data; and generating a semantic instance of the input data based upon the mapping of the concept to the input data. The set of annotation elements to map the concept to the input data are a selected ontology corresponding to the input data, a selected ontology concept from the selected ontology, a mapping of a word or word phrase in the sample input data to the selected ontology concept from the selected ontology, and a pattern of the mapped word or word phrase relative to a structure of the sample input data.